LA 

209 





Class 

Book i Hl Q~ 



{Whole Number 861 
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR— BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 



BULLETIN. 

3STO. 2, 1906. 



GERMAN YIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION, 

WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO 

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 

COLLATED FROM THE; REPORTS OE THE ROYAL PRUSSIAN 
/INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION W 1904. 



WILLIAM N. HAILMANN, 

Professor of the History and Philosophy of Education, 
Chicago Normal School. 



Second Edition. 




WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1907. 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 



1906. 

No. 1. The Education Bill of 1906 for England and Wales, as it passed the House 
of Commons. By Anna Tolman Smith, of the Bureau of Education. [Second 
edition, 1907. pp. 48.] 

No. 2. German views of American education, with particular reference to industrial 
development. Collated from the Reports of the Royal Prussian Industrial Com- 
mission of 1904. By William N. Hailmann, Professor of the History and Philos- 
ophy of Education, Chicago Normal School, pp. 55. 

No. 3. State school systems: Legislation and judicial decisions relating to public 

education, October 1, 1904, to October 1, 1906. By Edward C. Elliott, Professor 

of Education in the University of Wisconsin. [Second edition, revised, 1907. 

pp. 156.] 

1907. 

No. 1. The continuation school in the United States. By Arthur J. Jones, Fellow 
in Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, pp. 157. 

No. 2. Agricultural education, including nature study and school gardens. By 
James Ralph Jewell, sometime Fellow of Clark University. [Second edition, 
revised, 1908. pp. 148.] 

No. 3. The auxiliary schools of Germany. Six lectures by B. Maennel, Rector of 
Mittelschule in Halle. Translated by Fletcher Bascom Dresslar, Associate Pro- 
fessor of the Science and Art of Teaching, University of California, pp. 137. 

No. 4. The elimination of pupils from school. By Edward L. Thorndike, Professor 
of Educational Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, pp. 63. 

1908. 

No. 1. On the training of persons to teach agriculture in the public schools. By 
Liberty Hyde Bailey, Director of the New York State College of Agriculture at 
Cornell University, pp. 53. 

No. 2. List of publications of the Bureau of Education. (In press. ) 



{Whole Number 361 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR— BUREAU OF EDUCATION, 



BULLETIN. 

NO. 2, 1906. 






GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION, 

WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO 

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 

COLLATED FROM THE REPORTS OF THE ROYAL PRUSSIAN 
INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION OF 1904. 

BY 

WILLIAM N. HAILMANN, 

Professor of the History and Philosophy of Education, 
Chicago Normal School. 



Seconl Edition 




WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1907. 



l> 



T,A 



v^' 



'/ 



rv^ 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Letter of transmittal . . 5 

Preface 7 

General considerations 9 

The kindergarten 17 

Elementary schools 17 

Middle schools 19 

Normal instruction 24 

Drawing and art instruction 25 

Industrial art schools 30 

Technical colleges and other advanced technical institutions 35 

Apprenticeship and trade schools 41 

Contents of the ' ' Reiseberichte " 48 

Index 49 



LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



Department of the Interior, Bureau op Education, 

Washington, D. C. , September 20, 1906. 

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith the manuscript of the second 
number of the Bulletin of the Bureau of Education for the year 1906, and to 
recommend its publication under the provisions of the act approved May 28, 1896 
(29 Stat. L., 171), authorizing the publication of such bulletin. 

The public is generally familiar with the reports of the Mosely commission of 
1903, a commission consisting of representative publicists and educators of Great 
Britain, who made a most interesting study of American educational conditions with 
special reference to their bearing upon industrial efficiency. The Royal Prussian 
commission, who visited this country in the year 1904, proceeded very quietly with 
their investigations, and their presence in this country excited comparatively little 
comment. The visit of this commission was, however, an international event of 
great significance. The reports of their observations have only recently been issued 
as a document of the House of Deputies of the Prussian Parliament, prepared under 
the direction of the minister of commerce and industry. At my request, Dr. W. N. 
Hailmann, of the Chicago Normal School, formerly superintendent of Indian schools 
of the United States, has prepared a summary of the contents of this volume, which 
is presented herewith. 

It was no easy task to present in a bulletin of 55 pages an adequate synopsis of a 
quarto volume of nearly 500 pages, but Doctor Hailmann's work will, I think, be 
found in general a fair and discriminating summary of that document. In the 
interest of brevity it was found necessary to omit from consideration some very 
important portions of the text which deal with certain aspects of American industry 
rather than American education. Some objections may doubtless be raised to stric- 
tures on American schools which are past by the members of the commission and 
summarized in this bulletin. It will be remembered, however, that what is presented 
in the several reports is mainly the impressions of the several commissioners gained 
in a few weeks of travel and observation in this country, a fact to which they them- 
selves refer, in deprecating the acceptance of their reports as representing any ulti- 
mate judgment. 

When all necessary deductions are made, the fact remains that these reports, pre- 
pared by highly trained and very able specialists, who view American institutions 
from a foreign standpoint and report their findings to their home government, can 
not fail to command the thoughtful consideration of Americans everywhere. 

Doctor Hailmann has rearranged the matter of the report for the convenience of 
American readers. An analytical table of the contents of the original document, 
prepared by Dr. L. R. iClemm, of the Bureau of Education, appears on pages 45 to 47. 
Very respectfully, 

Elmer Ellsworth Brown, 

Commissioner. 

The Secretary of the Interior. 



PREFACE 



The history and purpose of the Reiseberichte iiber Nordamerika (Reports of an 
inspection tour in North America), of which this bulletin presents a partial synopsis, 
will best appear in the following statements culled from the preface of the Reisebe- 
richte. 

The Prussian House of Deputies, on the 4th of June, 1902, requested the Prussian 
Government to institute a number of measures for the promotion of the smaller 
industries. In compliance with this request, the minister of commerce and industry 
in the year 1903 sent commissioners to southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and 
England to gather data of interest and value for Prussian conditions. 

In the year 1904 it was decided, on occasion of the St. Louis Exposition, to extend 
these studies to the United States and to appoint a suitable commission for this pur- 
pose. The majority of these commissioners left for America toward the end of 
August, 1904, and spent six to seven weeks in the United States. 

After a short stay in New York they entered upon their studies in St. Louis. 
Here the extensive and rich Educational Department of the Exposition afforded a 
most favorable opportunity to gain a comprehensive view of the school conditions 
of the United States; here also the further plans for the journey were determined 
upon. In this it became necessary to consider chiefly the North Atlantic and north- 
ern Middle States, whose school system is most widely developed and a standard 
for the rest of the country. 

None of the reports claim to give a final and indisputable judgment of the matters 
treated. They are based on impressions which German specialists gathered in six 
to seven weeks, in a country as large as Europe, the whole supplemented with the 
study of related literature. 

In the several reports there will be found differing judgments on the same subject. 
In one will be heard more the voice of the admirer of American institutions, in 
another more that of the critic. Intentionally no effort was made to do away with 
these differences or to conceal them. Whatever may be lost thereby for the total 
impression of American educational institutions, as presented by the reports, will be 
gained in many-sidedness and impartiality. * * * 

Friends of our own [German] system of industrial instruction will seek in the 
reports chiefly suggestions by which we may be benefited. In hints in this direc- 
tion the reports are not lacking. Only they must not hope to find accounts of insti- 
tutions that can at once be transferred to Germany. The school system of a country 
is a part of its culture. It is indissolubly linked with its historic development, its 
economic and political condition. Thus, the American school system, too, with its 
superiorities and defects, is conditioned by the extremely rapid economic develop- 
ment of a young people, the democratic constitution of the country, its mode of 
settlement, the peculiar mixture of its population. In all these respects we live 
under essentially different conditions. If we would learn from the Americans we 
should try less to imitate one or another successful measure than to appropriate 
sound and effective ideas of organization. 

It is evident from these statements that the reports, even where they deal with 
matters of general education, do so with constant reference to their bearing on tech- 
nical instruction and industrial development. This should be steadily kept in mind 
in the perusal of this bulletin, lest the reports as well as the synopsis be charged 
unjustly with lack of comprehensiveness in the presentation of the data. 

7 



8 PREFACE. 

In the preparation of this bulletin, the chief purpose has been to present the 
impressions of the commissioners as baldly as possible, and only in so far as they 
touch upon matters of education in their bearing upon industrial development, in 
order to afford an opportunity to see ourselves in this work as others see us who 
know how to look and what to look for. Such a point of view is always profitable. 
It enables us, on the one hand, to see more clearly what there is in our work that 
deserves approbation and increased emphasis, and what, on the other hand, calls for 
revision. 

Naturally, too, stress has been placed upon matters in our educational work that 
affect our development as an industrial nation. Merely interesting data of extrane- 
ous information have been omitted as foreign to this purpose, and detailed accounts 
of the organization of specific home institutions have been passed by as more com- 
pletely accessible in their official publications. The steady hope has been that the 
matter here presented may aid us in seeking our goal more advisedly, with deeper 
confidence in our ability and our resources, and with increasing reliance in our deal- 
ings with others on that "American fair play that seeks success only on the basis of 
true merit." 

The reports of the following members of the commission appear in the Reise- 
berichte: 

Doctor Dunker, of Berlin, industrial councilor. 

Doctor Kuypers, of Diisseldorf, city school inspector. 

H. Back, director of the Industrial School at Frankfort-on-the-Main. 

Doctor Muthesius, of Berlin, industrial councilor. 

E. Thormiilen, director of the School of Industrial Art, at Magdeburg. 

Professor Schick, director of the Industrial Art School at Cassel. 

Von Czihak, of Berlin, industrial school councilor. 

Professor Gotte, of Berlin, industrial councilor. 

Beckert, of Schleswig, royal industrial school councilor. 

E. Beil, director of the Hardware and Cutlery School at Schmalkalden. 

Sellentin, director of the School of Shipbuilding and Machine Construction at 
Kiel. 

Professor Giirtler, of Berlin, industrial councilor. 

Pukall, director of the Royal Ceramic School at Bunzlau. 

W. Oppermann, of Arnsberg, industrial councilor. 

The title of the original work is: 

Reiseberichte fiber Nordamerika: erstattet von Komissaren des Koniglich Preus- 
sischen Ministers fur Handel und Gewerbe. Berlin, 1906. W. Moeser Buchdruckerei, 
Hofbuchdrucker Sr. Majestiit des Kaisers und Konigs. [490 p. F.] 



GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION, WITH PARTICULAR 
REFERENCE TO INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



[From the report of Doctor Dunker.] 



Historic development. — Doctor Dunker opens his report with a concise sketch of the 
historic development of the American school. 

The American schools [he says] arose in response to local needs. They were 
from the beginning the children, not of theory, but of necessity, reflecting the polit- 
ical, cultural, and economic conditions of the new society which is developing beyond 
the sea. As the population passes out of the colonial into the national type the 
schools recede in character from their English models and emphasize more and more 
clearly distinct American features. 

Education is not one of the interests assigned to the Federal Government by the 
Constitution of 1787. Yet the political development of the nineteenth century 
moved toward centralization. In the civil war the Union prevailed over State 
supremacy. The prodigious development of trade, the steady inland migration from 
State to State, the increasing accession of foreigners who wisht to become Americans 
rather than citizens of particular States, created a new people, the wonderful uni- 
formity of whose character became possible only thru the remarkable uniformity of 
land and climate. With the twentieth century, after the easy victory over old 
Spain, this people, still in the process of formation, assumes a character of increased 
solidarity with reference to other nations. * * * 

National Teachers' Association. — Parallel with this development, and because of it, 
proceeded the development of a national American school system. Shortly before 
the civil war (1857), when all other questions yielded to the question of union or 
separation, the National Teachers' Association was founded; and, after the victory 
of the Union, this association was reorganized on the basis on which it now rests. 
It constitutes to-day a powerful bond, uniting the entire educational system of the 
United States. Its annual meeting in Boston in 1903 was attended by over 32,000 
members, from the presidents of the highest universities down to the plain rural 
teachers. Its sessions, its publications, and, above all, the reports of its committees, 
exert a far-reaching, unifying influence from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the 
Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi. 

Bureau of Education. — Immediately after the civil war there was felt, too, the need 
of a national central office for educational affairs. As early as 1867 this office — the 
Bureau of Education — was created, and a few years later it was incorporated with 
the Department of the Interior. 

It became the duty of the new Federal office to gather statistics showing the de- 
velopment of educational affairs in the several States, to aid the American people in 
the establishment of good schools by the diffusion of information concerning the 
organization of schools and methods of instruction, and to serve the interests of edu- 
cation in every direction. 

The Bureau of Education has exerted an extraordinarily stimulating influence and 
contributed essentially to the development of a national school system. No other 
educational office of the world has done so extensive a literary work as this office, 
especially since Dr. William T. Harris has been its head (1889). Altho there may 
be many things among its publications which other countries would scarcely deem it 
necessary to print, there is, on the other hand, scarcely an educational problem for 
whose discussion the hundreds of bound volumes and pamphlets do not afford 
important material. 

19952— No. 2—07 2 9 



10 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

Hoisting the flag. — The national character of the American school is further indi- 
cated by the widely diffused custom, in many instances fixt by State law, of hoist- 
ing the flag of the Union over public school buildings during periods of instruction. 
It is especially significant that certain Southern States that heretofore had not for- 
gotten the civil war and the evil days of reconstruction ," under the direct influence 
of the victory over Spain began to hoist the Stars and Stripes over their schools 
instead of the State flag. 

Public schools. — The new American school is a public school, i. e., a school estab- 
lished by the people, maintained by the people, conducted by the people, and open 
to the people without payment of tuition fees. It comprizes (1) the kindergarten, 
from the fourth to the sixth year of age; (2) the elementary school (grammar school, 
primary school), with an eight-year course; (3) the middle school (high school), 
with a four-year course; (4) the college, with a four-year course; (5) the university. 

None of the schools from (1) to (4) represent a blind alley, but each is meant to 
prepare for the next higher grade, in accordance with the words of Huxley, much 
quoted in America, that "no system of public education deserves the name of a 
national system if it does not raise a great educational ladder which leads from the 
gutter to the university." 

Religious instruction. — The public school is independent of every church. It imparts 
no religious instruction; it does not, even for statistical purposes, inquire into the 
religious belief of its pupils. In many instances, however, it is customary to hold 
short devotional exercises in which all the pupils take part, and which consist of 
moralizing addresses or readings from the Bible. Free afternoons, Saturdays, and 
Sundays are at the disposal of the different denominations for private religious instruc- 
tion. Some churches, howeVer, maintain also their own schools from the elementary 
grades to the university, competing with the public institutions; for the Americans 
have, indeed, the idea of compulsory education, but not that of compulsory schools. 

Private schools. — In cultured sections, especially where the fundamental Anglo- 
Saxon character is strongly prominent among the people, the older form of education — 
the private institution— has held its place at the side of the public school, and this 
more particularly with reference to high school, college, and university instruction. 

Here belong, first of all, the old richly endowed institutions, such as Harvard, 
Yale, Columbia, and some others, distinguished by their corporate character, and to 
which have been added in later days the magnificent university foundations of 
wealthy captains of industry. 

Private middle schools hold their own, especially when they lay stress upon prep- 
aration for college, and when, in opposition to the increasing prevalence of coedu- 
cation in public middle schools, they instruct the sexes separately. Moreover, new 
institutions of this kind, partly with very high tuition fees, have been established in 
recent times in response to segregating tendencies in certain social circles. 

'Local differences. — Quite naturally there exist in this young country among indi- 
vidual schools in the same category great differenes, which often are not merely 
quantitative. Many a small city school in Massachusetts stands on a higher plane 
than a college in Arizona or New Mexico, and even the middle schools of Chicago, 
on the one hand, and those of old centers of culture, such as Philadelphia and 
Boston, on the other hand, can scarcely be designated as institutions of the same 
rank. * * * 

General culture. — The foregoing sketch of the American school system deals only 
with institutions of general culture. It is an American principle that the Common- 
wealth has not only the right but also the duty to provide for free public education 
from the district school to the university; but that, on the other hand, it has not only 
not the duty but indeed not the right to use the means of the Commonwealth for spe- 
cial education of any kind. Consequently, altho this principle is more and more being 
set aside, the greater part of the special education of jurists, clergymen, physicians, 
engineers, and merchants is consigned to private institutions. But conditions are 
stronger than human theories; they demand professional instruction and expansion 
of the idea of general culture. a 

Difference between German and American schools. — As to their general character, 
Doctor Dunker finds the essential difference between German and American schools 
in the fact that the former seek to instruct and the latter to educate. In America he 
finds "boards of education" and a "bureau of education," in Germany "ministers 
of instruction;" the German wants his children "to learn something worth while," 
the American "has his children educated." In the school life of Germany the 

• a Reiseberichte, pp. 7-10. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 11 

great educational principles are often neglected; the stress of discussion, always 
thoro and logical, is upon matters of organization and special method, and such dis- 
cussion is confined to experts and does not reach the great mass of the people. 

In America, on the other hand, all great educational problems are in a fluid con- 
dition; they are discust in meetings, books, magazines, and newspapers, often 
thoroly, sometimes superficially, almost always with enthusiasm and subjective con- 
viction. The widest public is interested in the discussions. Usually the thought 
itself is derived from German studies, but here it is projected into the world of 
things, becomes a deed, often, it is true, before it is matured. The public is pleased 
to see it carried out; how this is done is frequently a minor consideration. Every- 
where there is credulous optimism coupled with harmless dilettanteism, everywhere 
high aim, liberal execution, but lack of solidity in matters of detail. 

The German educational ideal of a cultivated human being, as to its import, is more 
easily felt than defined; it is essentially aristocratic, since it can be realized only in 
a few. The American educational ideal is simple, concrete, and democratic, to wit: 
An American citizen, healthy (in mind and body), and self-dependent in judgment 
and action. « 

As to the general treatment of the pupils' work, Doctor Dunker says: 

While with us the school frequently points out to the children the inadequacy of 
their work, holds them to the perfect solution of minor tasks with painful attention 
to all difficulties, and overwhelms them with difficulties and exceptions, the opposite 
practise prevails' in the American school. Difficulties are avoided, mistakes past 
by; frequently the pupils are given great tasks whose performance would exceed 
their power, and the school is satisfied with a childish treatment of the subject and 
makes the impression upon the children that the problem has been fully solved. 
This results in quickness of judgment, self-confidence, superficiality, and dilettanteism 
( Laienhaftigkeit ) . & 

Sanitation. — With much approval Doctor Dunker directs attention to the care given 
to sanitation in the construction and equipment of the schoolhouses and to instruc- 
tion in hygiene. With reference to lavatories and toilet rooms he says: 

I have seen nothing like these in any German school and urgently recommend 
their imitation. * * * Habituation to a certain luxury in lavatories and toilet 
rooms is something which, as a people, we very much need. In America these 
localities are often luxuriously equipped with marble and other expensive material; 
and we find here again that these apartments are better kept and more respected 
the better their equipment, c 

Discipline. — He also points to the gentleness of discipline, the comparative reduc- 
tion of disciplinary drill, and the practical banishment of corporal punishment, 
ascribing these things largely to the prevalence of female teachers, for whose educa- 
tional efficiency he has only words of commendation. "The word teacher," he 
says, ' ' if not specially designated, is, in America, of feminine gender, and the great 
majority of American young people grow up under the direction of women teachers. 
This is only possible because of the position assigned to woman in America. * * * 
In an evening school for special instruction in Chicago we saw a young woman of 
about 28 years conduct a class of 30 to 40 grown and half-grown men with masterly 
tact, and confest to each other afterwards that we considered this impossible in a 
German metropolis."^ On the other hand, Doctor Dunker holds that in scientific 
attainments these teachers in the middle schools are often deficient. His views on 
coeducation will be reported under the heading " Middle schools." 

Pride in schools. — He notes the pride of Americans in their school system and con- 
cedes its justice, but criticizes the tendency of the great majority not to admit short- 
comings of that system. 

That, however, there are expert critics among them who do not conceal these 
faults is proved by the words of the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, addrest to a teachers' gathering at Boston: "Our schools reflect, or pos- 
sibly account for, the national tendency to make a little knowledge go a great way. 

aReiseberichte, pp. 35-36. b Ibid., pp. 39-40. c Ibid., p. 36. d Ibid., p. 40. 



12 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

The American is alert, energetic, resourceful, and superficial. He can make a little 
knowledge go further than the citizen of any other country, and this lesson he has 
had every opportunity to learn in the school. Initiative, resourcefulness, and ner- 
vous energy were great factors in our pioneer work, and they are great factors still; 
but they will not endure in competition with efficient training, patient study, and 
exact knowledge. The pioneer epoch has past." « * * * 

Patriotism. — The American schools are pronouncedly national educational institu- 
tions. This, as already mentioned, is even externally indicated by the fact that pub- 
lic instruction is imparted under the shadow of the national flag. The great national 
anniversaries of the Declaration of Independence, of the birth of Washington and 
Lincoln, are celebrated with suspension of school exercises and with school festivals. 
The geography and history of the United States are thoroly studied in all kinds of 
schools, so that the pupil may learn to know and love his people and its heroes and 
become familiar with his country. 

Civics. — He becomes acquainted with the institutions of public life in community, 
State, and Union in special courses of instruction (civics). The thought that every 
one is destined to take part in the conduct of State affairs and must, therefore, be 
familiarized early and thoroly with these institutions, is shared not only by the edu- 
cators but by the whole people. Early, too, the naive belief is inculcated that these 
institutions are the best in the world. & 

American optimism. — Later on, after analyzing in some detail the attitude of the 
average American toward other nations, Doctor Dunker continues: 

On the whole, however, the average American looks upon the European peoples 
as pitiable existences, weakened by old age, whose children, weary of home tyranny, 
flee to the bosom of the alma mater Americana, seeking bread and freedom. In the 
larger centers of population this view grows out of the character of the immigrants and 
constitutes one of the sources of American national pride. This pride rests not upon a 
feeling of hatred, but upon a sense of pity and superiority which is renewed daily by 
contact with the wretched proletariat coming from darkest Europe, and in education 
and modes of life far inferior to the lowest strata of native laborers. * * * If we 
add to this the unquestionably unprecedented economic development, the absence 
of a political counterbalance in the new world, the easy victory over old Spain, and, 
finally, the freedom of motion in American politics rendered possible by the unset- 
tled condition of the European balance of power, we can understand the proud ele- 
vation of American self-appreciation, which has its roots less in tbe past than in the 
greatness of the present, and still more in the firm belief in a greater future. 

And one of the roots of this optimism is grounded in the American school, with its 
educational ideal of American citizenship and its device: "A bright hope in the 
future." c 

II. 

[From the report of Doctor Kuypers.] 

Doctor Kuypers, after claiming for Pestalozzi, Froebel, Herbart, and Wundt a 
large share of credit for the educational progress of the United States, and pointing 
out the fact that the American educators of to-day have studied in Germany and 
acknowledge themselves to be "disciples of Germany," continues as follows: 

But who will guarantee that the pupil will not excel the master unless the parts 
are interchanged and the teacher begins to learn from the pupil. Only such recipro- 
cal stimulation can secure true progress. It is with German and American education 
as with all other arts, to the old the aims of the young may sometimes seem wild 
and their work unfinished, nay, immature; but that the creations of the young are 
full of suggestion in direct touch with reality, and largely planned, can not be denied, 
even by the old. 

On the. other hand, respect for traditions, the striving for attainable ends, regard 
for the little things, careful study of the course of procedure, and organic perfection, 
have a well-tried value in such daring new creations of youthful courage; but they 
are principles that impede progressive development. The solidity of the old must 
be joined to the eager, inventive spirit of the young, lest in time the good become 
antiquated, burdensome, unfit. 

This thought forces itself upon the German educator on an inspection tour thru 
America as it does upon a representative of the old school who visits a modern exhi- 
bition of paintings, for the schools of the United States resemble in many ways 
such realistic pictures, largely planned but often only sketched in outline. To accept 

e»Proc. Nat'l Ed. Ass'n, 1903, p. 76. b Reiseberichte, pp. 41-42. olbid., p. 43. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 13 

them without criticism is impossible; to be ready with a snap judgment would be 
equally wrong. The visible or demonstrable "results" will often prove unsatis- 
factory; the aim will afford ample ground for thought. 

It is less the material than the formal elements in American instruction that call 
for observation; the essentials lie not in the results, but in the principles. On the 
recognition of this fact the present report is based. * * * 

I have not tried to determine the extent of the results of instruction nor could I 
have done so. The Exposition, with its masses of exhibits, indicated clearly the prin- 
ciples, but could not give an idea of the results of instruction. 

Unreliability of "show work." — In the "show work" of an exposition we never 
know in what way or how much the teacher has prepared the pupil or helped out in 
the work. Even independently done samples of work furnish no true index of the 
character of a school, much less of the schools of an entire country, for not the achieve- 
ment of individuals but the average achievements afford data for judgment. Finally, 
the success of a school consists not in the achievement or result, but in the progress, 
in the advance over former conditions on the part of the same persons, which it is 
difficult to show in an exhibit. Moreover, it is impossible in such work to isolate 
the influence of the school from other influences. a 

For these reasons Doctor Kuypers deem^ it necessary to supplement the impres- 
sions of the Exposition with visits to the schools themselves. This he does. Yet he 
refrains from expressing a judgment as to the results of instruction, because of the 
imited time available for such visits and the influence of personality upon such 
results, and confines himself to the study of the general principles and conditions 
which essentially determine the character of the influence of the school. Even in 
this he warns the reader that, inasmuch as he could visit only a limited number of 
schools, his judgments can not apply to American schools in general. 

Organization of schools. — In his remarks on the organization of the public schools 
he agrees essentially with Doctor Dunker, laying stress on the facts that all schools, 
from the kindergarten to the university, are attended by all classes of people, that in 
all schools instruction is gratuitous, and that, except as to the colored race in the 
South, there is no distinction of race or nationality in the attendance. He notes, 
not without marks of approval, the "flexible system" of grading the pupils on the 
basis of attainments, the attention paid to local conditions in the work of entire 
schools, and the "significant democratic tendency to provide pupils with free text- 
books and other school material." 

Regard for personality of pupils. — The right of personality, which constitutes so 
large a factor in American life, exerts a great influence also in the school; for Ameri- 
can methods respect to an extraordinary degree the inclinations of the young citi- 
zen. From the choice of playthings in the kindergarten to the election of studies in 
higher schools this fact is noticeable. b 

Appeal to sense perception. — In the elementary school he sees this adaptation to 
child nature in appeals to sense perception thru the teacher's blackboard sketches 
rather than by means of apparatus, and still more in the utilization of the chil- 
dren's instincts of activity in graphic representation. "Drawing and painting are 
not limited to their formal cultural value as independent branches of instruction, 
but become in the service of all other branches a kind of childish thought expres- 
sion in contents and form similar to oral and written thought utterance." 

This he finds still further emphasized in "a kind of doing method," which even in 
purely theoretical branches claims bodily as well as mental activity, and culminates, 
in manual training, in the production of material objects with the help of tools. 

By this method the education of hand and eye acquire equal value with mental 
development, and the cultivation of taste goes hand in hand with both. 

This objective feature of the instruction keeps the school in touch with actual 
things. It assures, furthermore, a connection with the industrial and professional 
pursuits of later life, and renders the transition from the nursery to the school almost 
imperceptible. The entire school is permeated by a kind of kindergarten method. 

a Reiseberichte, pp. 45-46. blbid., p. 50. 



14 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

Superficiality. — It should not be overlooked that this feature is at the same time a 
manifestation of a certain superficiality (Ausserlichkeit) that characterizes also the 
theoretical instruction. 

The inclinations of the child, that constant criterion of the American teacher, 
naturally seek breadth rather than depth. The same is true of the theoretical 
instruction. It is stimulating and many-sided rather than thoro. It loves the con : 
centration of subjects and the natural connection of things, and is therefore not too 
desirous to keep from passing over into the spheres of other occupations. The prin- 
ciples "from the easy to the difficult and from the simple to the complex" yield to 
the desire to be interesting, and often, one is tempted to say, entertaining. 

Consequently, the spirit of enterprise of Young America, aspiring even more 
eagerly than the youth of Europe to new and great achievements, is given tasks 
which a systematic teacher of the Old World would introduce with a well-arranged 
sequence of preparatory exercises. It would miss at every step the all-sided thoro- 
ness of work and the entire scale of formal steps (Formalsttifen); but also, on the 
other hand, the reverse side, namely, ennui. 

The aim is not to transmit a definite fund of knowledge, but the school would 
stimulate and show the way in which the young citizen can help himself in his further 
progress. « 

Reading. — Doctor Kuypers accordingly points out that the use of readers with 
selections for discussion is gradually diminishing, that children in the eleventh year 
of age already use a number of special books on the different subjects of instruction, 
that school libraries are found even in the first year of school, that "use of the 
library" is prescribed in the courses of all grades, and that silent reading is carried 
on extensively even in the elementary school. "The pupil is to do connected read- 
ing, and, as far as possible, interpret for himself, so that he may be able later on to 
study successfully the books of public libraries and the newspapers." 

Training jar citizenship. — He is to become a citizen of a democratic state who is to 
extend his culture by his own efforts and to form his political judgments independ- 
ently. * * * This training for citizenship is not merely a subject for special 
instruction, nor merely like practise in the vernacular, an incidental aim of all other 
instruction as a matter of course; but this ethical education assumes also an objective 
form in the frequent cooperative work of groups of pupils of different grades in the 
same task in manual instruction, in which each one shares according to ability. 
Even in class instruction in the theoretical branches there is a phase of free common 
interest. This instruction consists more in a stimulating exchange of views than in 
an alternation of exposition and recital, of question and answer. 

In aim and method therefore the American elementary school bears in a high 
degree upon actual life; the Americans want a "modern" school in the good sense 
of the word. & 

School open to all alike. — Doctor Kuypers approves the fact that the elementary 
school is open to rich and poor alike, as a mutual spar to greater effort on the part 
of both, and as preventive of class hatred. He concedes that the extension of this 
common instruction to the fifteenth year can not but be beneficial to the great mass 
of the people; but he holds that for those who are to attend advanced schools it 
would be better if after the twelfth year the instruction were made to serve more as 
an introduction to advanced studies, inasmuch as now the courses of study of the last 
two years (seventh and eighth grades) bear more the character of finishing courses 
than of preparation for further school study. 

Coeducation. — With reference to coeducation in these schools, he concedes that the 
moral advantages of coeducation exceed the dangers, and that the unaffected inter- 
course between boys and girls in the presence of others has a tendency to elevate 
both the masculine and feminine characteristics. He is of the opinion, however, 
that this should not extend beyond the twelfth year, and that after this year boys 
and girls require different materials and methods of instruction, except in certain 
branches which he does not name. Moreover, boys should be instructed after that 
year principally by men, altho he concedes that up to that period the educational 

a Reiseberichte, pp. 50-51. b Ibid., p. 51. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 15 

influence of women is not inferior to that of men, and that for the lowest grades, and 
especially for the kindergarten, it is superior. 

Progressiveness. — He praises highly the efforts to guard the elementary school from 
becoming fossilized, and to adapt it as speedily as possible to the progressive require- 
ments of the present; but condemns as fatal the abuse of utilizing the child for mak- 
ing experiments in methods and branches of instruction. 

School boards. — In the practise of placing the control of schools in the hands of lay 
representatives of the people he sees opportunity to adapt the school to local needs 
and to stimulate interest and liberality on the part of the people, but warns against 
the dangers of party politics and against interference on the part of such school boards 
with the inner management of the schools. 

Home and school. — He praises the spirit of unity that prevails between pupils and 
teacher, the home and the school, but fears that it is too dearly bought "when the 
teacher becomes a leader who obeys the pupils," holding that, even in a democratic 
state, the school should be an absolute monarchy. 

Points of excellence. — He enumerates as unqualified points of excellence in the 
American school system the following: 

The admirable development of the kindergarten and its organic* connection with 
the normal school and elementary schools. 

The far-reaching possibility in the school organization of grading pupils with ref- 
erence to attainments and without regard to age, and the practise of placing two 
grades or half grades in one class as a stimulus to ambition and self-reliance. 

The principle of gratuitous instruction and gratuitous material of instruction (text- 
books, etc.). 

The relatively small number of pupils in individual class rooms, in spite of the 
rapid growth of cities. 

The education of hand and eye in manual instruction as a preparation for indus- 
trial and technical pursuits on the part of pupils who have less talent for abstract 
studies, and as enhancing respect for bodily labor. 

The tendency, not to give a finished education, but to prepare for further self- 
culture after school life. 

The establishment of technical schools in universities and of chairs for the peda- 
gogy of elementary schools and high schools, with practise schools connected. 

The requirement of high-school training for normal students, and the preparation 
of many normal teachers in higher schools and universities; the elevated and 
friendly spirit in normal schools; their character as experimental stations for new 
methods; the choice situation and equipment of normal schools, especially in their 
laboratories. 

The touch with academic and pedagogic science afforded to actual teachers, the 
zeal with which elementary teachers pursue cultural studies after graduation from 
normal schools, and the fact that opportunity for such pursuit is provided 
gratuitously. 

The annual official publications of the Bureau of Education concerning the status 
of education in the entire world. 

Defects. — As manifest defects the following are mentioned: 

The fact that compulsory education is not as yet universal, and is, in many instances, 
not sufficiently comprehensive where it does exist. 

The fact that there is no profession of elementary teaching. 

The excessive employment of women in the school service. 

The inadequate preparation of a number of district school-teachers, many of whom 
have had no normal training. 

The inadequacy of salary and social position on the part of teachers, with the excep- 
tion of those of a few cities. 



16 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

Extenuation. — In extenuation, however, he adds: 

It should not be overlooked, however, that these defects, to a large extent at least, 
are due to transitional conditions in the development of the country. 

In many sparsely settled regions a well-regulated school organization may be impos- 
sible for the present. That the desire for such organization exists is shown by the 
increasing number of union schools to which the children are carried at public expense, 
organized by groups of communities. 

It is just, too, to mention the contrast of the cities that seem to have solved thruout 
in a praiseworthy fashion the extraordinary task of adapting the development of the 
schools to their unprecedented growth. 

Nay, the progress of the school system must appear surprizing if we consider that 
America had scarcely been discovered when Luther could demand compulsory edu- 
cation in Germany, and that in the new country there were as yet no schools when 
in Europe the long struggle between the scholastics and humanists had come to 
an end. 

If we consider this youth of the American school, the willingness and ability to 
bear the burden of school expenditures, the quick practical insight with which the 
Americans put into practise foreign educational ideas in their countr}', the rapid 
growth of the pedagogic sciences in the country itself, the unhampered work in the 
school and its adaptability, the further prospects for the American elementary school 
can appear only in a favorable light. « 

HI. 

[From the report of Councilor von Czihak.] 

A few noteworthy additional utterances of a general character are found in the 
report of Councilor von Czihak. 

In a short sketch of the historical development and organization of the public 
schools, which does not differ materially from Doctor Dunker's presentation, he 
emphasizes the universal predominance of Froebel's principle of "learning by doing," 
the increasing prevalence of high schools, the gratuity of instruction in all public 
schools, and the practise of coeducation. 

Appreciation of public schools. — He criticizes the inadequacy of the compulsory 
school laws in conception and execution, but adds: "It would be wrong to con- 
clude from this that the importance of public school instruction is not appreciated. 
On the contrary, there is in all strata of the people a firm belief in the value of this 
instruction, an eager desire for the best attainable school education. Politicians look 
upon the school as an essential factor in the social and political development of the 
state." b 

An organic whole. — And, further on, he adds: "The organization of the American 
school system in elementary, as well as in advanced instruction, reveals a thoroly 
considered and logical plan. The interlocking of the various grades of school sur- 
prizes by its unity and simplicity, and excels the organizations of European civiliza- 
tions certainly in the ease of connection and transition between the elementary 
school, the advanced schools, the professional institutions, and the university." c 

Criticisms. — And again: "There may be foundation for the criticisms that the 
American school carries too many and too varied subjects of instruction; that it is in 
too great a hurry; that it makes too many experiments; that it is inclined more to 
stimulate curiosity than to foster thought; that it is built more on the work of the 
teacher than on that of the pupil, and that, from our standpoint, many things in its 
work appear as dilettanteism. Many of these things may be connected with certain 
national characteristics, but they do not invalidate the fact that the American school 
is thoroly in earnest. " rf 

a Reiseberichte, pp. 03-64. 6 1 bid., p. 186. c Ibid., p. 187. <* Ibid., p. 188. 



THE KINDERGARTEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 17 

THE KINDERGARTEN. 

[From report of Doctor Kuypers.] 

The dominant influence of Froebel in the work of American educational institu- 
tions has already been noticed. A special section is devoted to a consideration of 
this influence in the report of Doctor Kuypers. After a few introductory words 
bearing on the history of the kindergarten, he says: 

At present kindergartens are found thruout the land, as public, charity, and church 
institutions. In very many instances they are organically connected with the ele- 
mentary schools. 

Thirty children are generally assigned to one kindergartner. The equipment of 
the kindergartens is good. A large quantity of suitable material is prepared by manu- 
facturers. 

Kinclergartners. — The kindergartners are admirably prepared for their vocation. 
There are many kindergarten training schools, private and connected with normal 
schools and pedagogic professional schools, in which the students, in addition to theo- 
retical instruction, are afforded opportunity for practise in kindergarten education. 
In their best form, the normal courses extend over two years after graduation from 
a high school. There are found also special supervisors for kindergartens. 

The salary of kindergartners is not inferior to that of elementary teachers, altho 
their period of work is shorter. 

Aim. — Inasmuch as the work of the kindergarten does not aim at instructional 
results, but at general educational development, the tendency to consider the interests 
of the child as well as actual and social life, so characteristic of American instruction 
in general, is most clearly shown in these institutions. 

Method. — Suitable social occupations and games, the latter with piano accompani- 
ment, songs and stories, above all manual activities adapted to the stage of develop- 
ment and with things related to child life, make of the kindergarten a large nursery 
(Kinderstube). They are busy with the present, they do not learn for the future. 
Nevertheless the childish play'contains within itself the rudimentary ideas of later 
instruction. 

This feeling of being occupied with the present, which rules the little American in 
the kindergarten, remains also with the older child in later school years. The kin- 
dergarten is therefore a characteristic form of American school life. 

Its influence. — Indeed, the Froebelian principles are not limited in their influence 
to the kindergarten, but have brought also in the lower grades of the elementary 
schools a still wider application of that specifically American method of instruction 
which has been considered in a special section (see p. 13). In the teaching attitude, 
too, of the primary school the influence of the kindergarten is felt. A continuation 
of this kindergarten education up into the higher grades the Americans discovered 
in manual training at the Centennial Exposition (1876) in Philadelphia. Now 
Froebelian principles are found thruout the entire American school system. « 

The reader is also referred here to page 15, where Doctor Kuypers commends as a 
point of special excellence of the American school system "the admirable develop- 
ment of the kindergarten and its organic connection with the normal and elementary 
schools." 

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS (PRIMARY AND GRAMMAR SCHOOLS). 

[From report of Doctor Kuypers.] 

In addition to what has been quoted from Doctor Dunker's report concerning ele- 
mentary schools, more particularly regarding sanitation and discipline (p. 11), and 
from Doctor Kuypers's report on organization, methods, and aims (p. 13), the fol- 
lowing statements from Doctor Kuypers's report on subjects of instruction are of inter- 
est. The statements concerning course of study are based wholly, it seems, upon the 
schools of New York City. 

Course of study. — The subjects of instruction [he reports] correspond on the whole 
with those of our Volksschule. The following points deserve prominence: 

History is connected with civics and ethical instruction. Geography begins with 
the home and considers predominantly practical geographical relations. Nature 

aReiseberiehte, pp. 46-47. 
19952— No. 2—07 3 



18 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

study is the only one of the subjects dealing with matters of practical life (Realien) 
carried on from the beginning of the school period. Geography appears in the fourth 
and history not before the fifth grade. Hygiene and temperance .instruction are 
important subjects, but practical gymnastics receives apparently little attention. 
Drawing and painting are done almost exclusively from memory or from nature. 
Landscape drawing, too, is carried on, generally from copy, but, if feasible, also from 
nature. 

During the first six years there is needlework (Handarbeitsunterricht) for the 
girls, and for the boys "constructive work," which is connected with drawing and 
serves as a preparation for shopwork. The two upper grades offer for the boys 
manual training in woodwork in the school workshop, and for the girls instruction 
in cooking. Jn these upper grades German, French, Latin, or stenography may be 
elected. « 

Comparing the entire number of hours given to each of the several subjects during 
the entire elementary period in a New York City and a Prussian city school Doctor 
Kuypers finds as follows: 

Language, history, geography, and even arithmetic claim a smaller percentage 
than they do with us; the technical subjects and nature study a considerably greater 
percentage. The chief difference is found in our religious instruction and "free 
study" in New York. The former, which with us takes up one-sixth of our time, is 
lacking in the American school. On the other hand, the "free study," including 
the opening exercises and the elective subjects, occupies more than one-fifth of the 
school hours of an American elementary pupil. This does not include the busy 
work, consisting chiefly of supplementary reading or written work. 

The striving for the development of individuality and independence is prominent 
also here. At the same time it should not be overlookt that the entire number of 
school hours is greater with us than in America [New York City], 

Manual training. — Manual training deserves special mention. At the time of the 
Philadelphia Exposition (1876) manual training entered upon its triumphal march 
thru the American schools, and it is still to-day the most popular subject of instruc- 
tion. No other subject meets as does this the ideas of Americans concerning school 
education. Its highest development is found in special higher institutions — the 
manual-training high schools. 

I abstain from describing them and from giving an account of the current course 
of this subject, since other members of the commission will probably treat of the 
subject in detail. 

Nevertheless, I desire to give a short account of a course of manual training, which, 
in connection with the history of human culture, may give to this subject general 
educational value. [Doctor Kuypers refers here to the course of the Horace Mann 
School, of Teachers College, New York.] This course differs from the usual manual- 
training plan, inasmuch as the sequence of work tasks is not based on technical diffi- 
culties, but upon the successive stages of human development; for these stages reveal 
their character in their technical and industrial products, and the improvements in 
these have kept pace with the progress of culture. 

Now it is proposed that the pupil familiarize himself in his school reading and thru 
instruction theoretically with this progress of humanity, illustrate it in drawing, and 
live it out in manual training. In this plan increase of difficulties naturally follows 
progress in ability. This manual training is, therefore, more than a mere training 
of hand and eye: it is the highest form of self-actively rendering matters of instruc- 
tion objective b and of concentration of subjects of instruction, and becomes practi- 
cally the center of all instruction. * * * 

On the whole, however, manual training is limited to the education of hand and 
eye. Since the equipment of workshops and the work itself demand considerable 
expense, it has become developed as shopwork mostly in the cities, where "shops" 
can be more extensively utilized. 

In a number of cities it is obligatory in the two upper grades; in others the pupils 
are at least given an opportunity to learn it, either in the school itself or at a manual 
training center, c 

aReiseberichte, p. 54. ■ 

bTheterm " Veranschaulichung" is here rendered by the phrase, "rendering matters of instruction 
objective." Possibly the coined words " objectiflcation " or " objectivation " might have answered the 
purpose. 

oReiseberichte, pp. 54-56. 



MIDDLE SCHOOLS. 19 



MIDDLE SCHOOLS. 



[From report of Doctor Dunker.] 



Historical. — Doctor Dunker introduces his report on the middle or high schools in 
their relations to commerce and industry with a historical account of their develop- 
ment, as a result, on the one hand, of the need of college preparatory schools (fitting 
schools], and on the other hand, of a demand of the "middle classes" of the 
people for advanced preparation for the more difficult problems of practical life 
(finishing schools). The former were originally organized in imitation of the 
' ' grammar schools ' ' of England ; the latter, at first, took the form of private 
academies. 

The first American high school represented an upward development of the elemen- 
tary school ( Volksschule). It was maintained at public expense and charged no 
tuition fee. In its original plan there were neither ancient nor modern foreign lan- 
guages. As a finishing school it was from the start in obvious contrast with the 
fitting school. It was established by the mercantile and industrial interests of a 
large commercial city, for whose rising generation the elementary school was no 
longer sufficient and the Latin school too unpractical. a 

Rapid extension. — After the civil war, in spite of "demagogic opposition" to these 
"schools for the children of the rich," the high schools developed very rapidly. 
Yet- 
In the natural course of things it came about that just where the high schools were 
the best there arose the wish to secure for their graduates admission to colleges. 
This was the necessary outcome of the principle: "No blind alleys in education." 
The high school was therefore compelled to take up the work of a fitting school in 
addition to that of a finishing school. With this the addition of instruction in foreign 
languages in the middle school became necessary. 

Motley courses.— Now the colleges were as yet purely classical institutions of learn- 
ing, while, at the same time, practical life was becoming increasingly complex. The 
attempt to satisfy the requirements of both — the college and life — resulted in high 
school courses of instruction of unprecedented complexity. A thousand things, from 
iEschylus to bookkeeping and surveying, were taught, naturally nothing thoroly; 
a mechanical patchwork of many things, but no great educational aim. But gradu- 
ally there was formulated the educational ideal, namely, the American citizen. 

The colleges * * * adapted their requirements for admission to the new con- 
ditions and modified their courses. The same was done by the high schools. Both 
reflect, as in a microcosm, the complexity of the life of the people, which in a young 
democracy necessarily influences the schools more directly than in older States with 
a fixt school code prescribed by the government, a school bureaucracy, and the 
rigid routine of a professional body of teachers. 

Present organization. — Out of this confusion several distinct courses were precipi- 
tated, generally three — the classical, the half classical, and the scientific — which, in 
their essentials, correspond with our gymnasium, real gymnasium, and real school 
tendencies. In all the larger middle schools these subdivisions are emphasized from 
grade to grade, quite rarely in fixt prescribed courses, but usually in such a way 
that as the pupils advance in the grades the number of obligatory subjects is reduced, 
while the number of elective subjects is increased correspondingly. A certain mini- 
mum of lesson periods is prescribed. 

Altho this double character of the high school as a preparation for life and for col- 
lege is prominent and much praised, a closer analysis of courses of study shows that 
in the large schools special courses are provided for those who desire to be fitted for 
college. Strictly, therefore, the courses intended for practical life — the noncollegiate 
courses — are again blind alleys. We find, therefore, not a solution of the problem, 
but at best mitigation of contrasts by conducting the different courses under one roof 
and under one director, which makes the passage from one course to the other pos- 
sible and comparatively easy. 

Latin. — In the preparation for practical life, the belief in the cultural value of Latin 
plays a much greater part than with us. Formerly it was the knowledge of this 
language that distinguished the literary man from the workman, and, with the 
tenacity of the parvenu in culture, many an American adheres to this idea. With 
the briskness peculiar to him he studies for a year, in four weekly lessons, the severe, 

aReiseberichte, p. 14. 



20 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

difficult language of Rome, which demands years of devoted work. The idea is still 
quite prevalent that it argues extension of culture to be able to recognize a number 
of Latin roots in the Romanic part of the English vocabulary. The. proud inscrip- 
tion, "Per Pacem ad Libertas," in one of the principal rooms of the Philippine 
exhibifat St. Louis indicates the outcome of such classical culture. 

New movements. — In spite of this pseudo-classicism, and coupled with it, there have 
lately appeared in this land of contrasts wholly new movements in the middle 
school, viz., the introduction of manual training and commercial instruction. This 
represents a frontier region between general and industrial education, such as we do 
not possess in Germany in this extent and importance. " 

Manual training. — Doctor Dunker finds the impetus to the introduction of manual 
training in the Philadelphia Exposition and in the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, strengthened by the Swedish slojd and Froebelian educational ideas, as well 
as by a "predisposition in the character of the American people in favor of ' learn- 
ing by doing.' " 

After enumerating the various phases of manual training, or "education of the 
hand" in its widest sense, as applied to boys and girls, childhood and youth, he 
divides the subject, irrespective of drawing, into manual occupations for childhood, 
manual occupations for girls, and work in wood and metals for older boys, and 
continues: 

This third kind of manual work has become a distinguishing peculiarity of the 
American middle school. It agrees thoroly with the characteristic tendency of the 
American toward concreteness and reacts as a determining factor in the development 
of the character of the American people. To what extent it is cause and in how far 
it is effect it is difficult to determine. 

In order to prevent misunderstanding, this instruction in industrial manual work — 
the specifically American "manual training" — should not be confounded with the 
German Handfertigkeitsunterricht (instruction in manual skill). It begins where 
the latter ends. * 

In succeeding pages he gives credit for the introduction of manual training in the 
American middle schools to the " indefatigable activity " of Prof. C. M. Woodward, 
presents an elaborate account of the organization of his school, points to the phenom- 
enal increase in the number of public high schools that have adopted manual train- 
ing (from 37 cities of over 8,000 inhabitants in 1890 to 270 such cities in 1902), and 
mentions the Massachusetts law, making its introduction obligatory in cities of over 
20,000 inhabitants. 

Manual-training high schools. — Furthermore, he points out that Professor Wood- 
ward's aim was not so much the mere introduction of manual training in existing 
schools, as the establishment of manual training high schools in which "the whole 
boy" is educated. 

The number of such schools, mostly public, he estimates at 30, and continues: 

The leaders of this movement emphasize at every opportunity that their cause is 
only a matter of public education; that they want simply to educate; that they are 
not concerned with the future calling of the pupils as engineers, physicians, lawyers, 
merchants, or what not. Their schools, they claim, are not trade schools, fitting for 
certain occupations to be subsequently followed, but institutions for general culture, 
partly devoted to instruction in general industrial propaedeutics. c 

This, indeed, Doctor Dunker designates as the essential distinction of American 
manual training as contrasted with German practise, a manual training that is held 
to be of equal rank with literary subjects and admitted in the required minima of 
lessons. 

As to the educational value of American manual training in the middle schools, 
he adds elsewhere: 

This shopwork has much value for physical development and ethical education. 
It trains the eye and strengthens the muscles. Just at this period of development 

aReiseberichte, pp. 14-16. 6 Ibid., p. 16. c ibid., p. 21. 



MIDDLE SCHOOLS. 21 

and uncouthness the mingling of muscular and mental work is beneficial and guards 
against much that is foolish and worse. 

Frequently when we met, cheerily working at the anvil or turning lathe, a class of 
vigorous boys to whom we had just listened in a recitation of Cicero or Schiller, or 
when we saw them eagerly engaged in drawing or modeling, the pleasure over their 
delightful creative doing was mingled with the painful feeling that they were not 
German youths we had before us. 

In this shopwork it is not possible to slight a problem, to dismiss a difficulty with 
a phrase or a half-understood word. The daily dealing with material things gives a 
knowledge of their nature and skill in their appropriate use, in their proper hand- 
ling. Thus, while shopwork inculcates a sense of truth and a respect for the nature 
of things, it also lays the foundation for the cultivation of artistic taste. 

The manipulating of machines demands keen observation and quick and definite 
decision. The control of the natural force harnessed in the machine, the manage- 
ment of the tools and of the material give to the young man an assured feeling of 
mastership over the surrounding world of things, as well as confidence in himself 
and in the future. This feeling leaves no room for the world estrangement of paper- 
fed natures, which at the same time keep timidly aloof from the world of things and 
haughtily look down upon manual labor. Instruction in handicraft by capable' 
master artizans enhances, together with appreciation of manual skill, also respect for 
manual labor. And this attitude, which honors all decent labor, is one of the strong- 
est supports of American greatness. 

Shopwork, in accordance with a fundamental but often forgotten educational prin- 
ciple, rests upon the native instincts of the growing human being. Not every boy 
of approximately middle-school age (Tertianeralter) is inclined to scientific studies, 
but almost every boy has an instinctive desire to create with the hand something 
concrete and tangible. To direct and cultivate this instinct must be the task of a 
rational education. Now, the advocates of manual training have always empha- 
sized the point that they desire, by means of this manual training, to attract to the 
middle school pupils that are not drawn to higher culture by literary interests. 
Such pupils, who are not in themselves bad or mentally deficient, but whose interest 
can not be reached by a one-sided school, are found in all countries. With us they 
are kept in the higher, almost purely literary, school by the pressure of military 
privileges. Beginning with Quarta [the sixth class of the gymnasium, counting 
from the highest class], they embarrass the classes, vex the teachers, lower the 
standard of instruction, and therefore that of the entire school, become overaged, 
and secure at best the military privilege of one year's army service. If they turn 
out well in some vocation in later life it is in spite of the school, not because of the 
school. Very often, however, they enter upon practical life morose natures, with- 
out faith in themselves and their calling, without energy, without creative ardor, 
irritated against the school that failed to reach them. Of the best the school can 
give, of the desire for progress, of the yearning for more and higher things, they 
have not felt a breath; their culture has come to an end, but also for effective manual 
work they are spoiled. 

Just with such boys, lacking in literary talent or taste, the manual-training school 
aims to stimulate mental life with the help of the workshop. In wood and metal 
work, with tool and machine, they acquire skill and knowledge, which come to rest 
on a scientific foundation thru the close connection of the shopwork with drawing, 
mathematics, and physics. "It is our aim to bring thought and labor together, to 
make the thinker a worker and the worker a thinker. Even in manual training, 
the chief object is mental development and culture. "« 

Laboratories. — For similar reasons, Doctor Dunker mentions with approval the 
appeal to self-activity in the equipment and management of the laboratories of the 
middle schools in connection with instruction in chemistry, physics, and biology. 

The teacher [he writes] does not confine himself to the statement of a fact and its 
illustration by appropriate experiment, but the pupils themselves prove the truth by 
their own experiment, or are led to discover the truth by experiment as something 
new. 

Of course, this requires twice as much time, but of more importance at this point, 
it seems to me, than the amount of ground gone over is the manner of going over it, 
the stimulation and cultivation of a tendency for independent future work. 

I saw a class of 44 pupils working in botany. Each pupil had a set of tools * * * 
provided by the school, for which the pupil was responsible to the school. Each 
one used, with the pupil placed opposite — often of the opposite sex— a microscope. 



a Reiseberiehte, pp. 36-37. 



22 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

They made their own preparations, examined these, exchanged their observations, 
drew what they had seen, and wrote a description. By this self-doing, hand and 
eye and the understanding are cultivated simultaneously. I believe that German 
middle schools in their methods rarely train their pupils similarly in" scientific obser- 
vation, in graphic and written expression; for what school in Germany possesses so 
many microscopes? a 

Commercial instruction. — The introduction of commercial instruction is attributed 
by Doctor Dunker to the desire on the part of teachers to retain the pupils for a longer 
time in the schools. Many parents, holding that the middle school offered nothing 
of immediate practical value to their boys after graduation from the elementary 
schools, preferred to send them to some business college; and this tendency was 
strengthened on the- part of business colleges by the publication of pamphlets and by 
personal agitation, warning the graduates of elementary schools against the high 
schools and seeking to gain them for their institutions. 

In order to counteract this pressure, a numbef of middle schools established com- 
mercial courses, in which penmanship, typewriting, shorthand, bookkeeping, and 
commercial arithmetic took the place of languages, mathematics, and natural science. 
* * * More thoughtful educators opposed this commercial instruction, which, 
like that of the business school, represented mere drill for commercial clerkships. 
Inasmuch as the commercial courses made less onerous demands upon intellectual 
effort than the other courses they were sought by indolent or weak pupils. In many 
instances, moreover, they occupied only one or two years in contrast with the other 
courses of the high school, which required four years. The keen observation that 
it is a shame "to turn clever boys into cheap clerks" correctly characterizes this 
procedure. 

Recently, under the influence of German ideas, a number of larger cities have 
undertaken to establish commercial high schools, which are genuine educational insti- 
tutions. The best of this kind is probably the commercial department of the Phila- 
delphia Central High School, under the direction of Cheesman A. Herrick, the 
efficient pioneer in commercial high school instruction. Chicago is about to estab- 
lish a similar institution, but wants first to send its city board of education to 
Germany. t> 

Here follow full accounts of the New York High School of Commerce and of the 
commercial courses of the Drexel Institute. 

Colleges of commerce. — The colleges of commerce, according to Doctor Dunker, arose 
from the demand, on the one hand, of educators who desired to increase college 
attendance and to raise the people to a higher level of culture, and, on the other 
hand, from the idea that "the American captain of industry needs in the great tasks 
set for him by economic, life a deeper understanding of economic, judicial, and social 
questions than the old college can afford him." 

As leading institutions of this character, Doctor Dunker enumerates the college of 
commerce and administration of the University of Chicago, the Wharton school of 
the University of Pennsylvania, the school of commerce of the University of Wiscon- 
sin, the University of Michigan, the school of commerce of the University of Califor- 
nia, the University of Illinois, the Amos Tuck school of Dartmouth College, and the 
school of commerce, accounts, and finance of New York University. 

In subsequent paragraphs he outlines briefly the course of study of the Wharton 
school and that of the Amos Tuck school, remarks the great attention paid thruout 
to transportation and banking, the important position assigned to relations between 
employer and employee and other social problems, the insufficiency of language 
instruction "with a background of the politics of commerce," and the fact that the 
treatment of geography and colonial affairs tends to imperialism, and concludes as 
follows: 

The preceding account indicates that in their application of German suggestions 
the Americans have imprest a part of their general educational system with ideas 
of political economics. In details and in organization we can learn nothing of them, 
for the former are often inadequate and the latter is adapted to the general system 

a Reiseberichte, p. 39. - b Ibid., p. 25. 



MIDDLE SCHOOLS. 23 

of instruction of the country. But we should not forget that the Americans are ener- 
getically at work to advance consciously the interests of what they call American 
"expansion." In the struggle between Germany, England, and America for the 
world market, which will characterize the twentieth century, the prospects of victory 
will lie with the people that can send into this contest the greatest number of men 
with a free and wide outlook, with skill in organization, and the exercise of power. 
And whether our schools, in which the rising commercial generation of Germany 
seeks its culture, could not do still more for the education of such men is a question 
whose repeated and serious consideration should be earnestly urged. « 

Additional notes of interest in Doctor Dunker's report treat of the use of text- books 
and of coeducation. These notes seem to apply in many points to the elementary 
rather than the middle schools. 

Text-books. — A peculiar place [he writes] is occupied in the American school by 
the text-book. It plays a much more important part than the manual with us. It 
is more constraining, obscures the personality of the teacher, and renders the instruc- 
tion, therefore, in a measure impersonal. Originally the value of the text-book 
rested on the lack of good teachers. For this reason books were written that con- 
tained in readable form just the lessons to be learned. The activity, and frequently 
also the ability, of the teacher was limited to the setting of tasks in the book and to 
the hearing of recitations. This is frequently the case even to-day; yet a combina- 
tion of the text-book method with personal teaching is aimed at. In this as well as 
in other things necessity was made a virtue, and it is especially claimed for the text- 
book that the pupil must be trained to deal with printed matter free from the lead- 
ing strings of the teacher — that man depends for progress in life on books and news- 
papers and must be trained early in their use. 

There lies a truth in this, and the best outcome, of the method is that an extensive 
and good popular scientific literature has been created, and that the text-books refer 
to supplementary books and recognized authorities. This certainly enables the dili- 
gent and talented pupil with a large amount of free time at his disposal, with the 
help of the text-book and the perusal of supplementary matter, to progress much 
more rapidly than his less industrious and less gifted schoolmate. If the teacher 
assists him in this with occasional hints, advice, and special tasks, class instruction 
assumes thereby somewhat of the character of individual instruction. This combi- 
nation of class instruction with individual instruction is favored by the practise of 
instructing in most instances two divisions in the same class. The diligent and gifted 
pupil of the lower division is thus enabled to do also the work of the higher division — 
to finish the year's work in half a year — and to secure earlier promotion to a higher 
class. Thus a way is opened to the capable and diligent pupil. " We give the bright 
boy a chance" is a principle which is often quoted in the school as well as in indus- 
trial life. 

Of course American text-book instruction is barred to us, but we should, neverthe- 
less, consider ways and means to encourage independent and individual reading with 
our pupils. We should also not lose sight of the problem of promoting the capable 
pupils in accordance with their talents and inclinations. In all class instruction, 
particularly in Prussia, there is danger that mediocrity may crush talent. With us 
the average mark "sufficient" (genugend) rules in school. b 

Coeducation. — Certain statistics with reference to coeducation are summed up as 
follows: 

Coeducation is lookt upon as a specifically American and democratic measure, 
and this secures its triumph in the public schools. On the other hand, the desire for 
the separation of the sexes on the part of parents opposed to coeducation constituted 
a new reason for the existence of private schools. It is reported that 95 per cent of 
the pupils of -public middle schools and 4.3 per cent of those of private middle schools 
are educated in mixt institutions. Irrespective of all else coeducation certainly 
promotes innocent association between the sexes and moderates sexual tension. It 
is equally certain that it can bring about a salutary community of interests between 
the two sexes, and it would surely be better for many of the smaller cities of Ger- 
many to establish a common public high school for boys and girls, instead of a gym- 
nasium for boys and a poor private school for girls. [See also p. 14 for Doctor Kuy- 
pers's views.] 

On the whole [Doctor Dunker adds], the American "middle class" is inclined to 
place its sons early in business, but to let its daughters continue for a longer period 
in the middle school. Thus it happens that while the lower grades usually still 

a Reiseberichte, p. 34. b Ibid., pp. 38-39. 



24 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

afford an example of coeducation, the higher grades present the aspect of a higher 
school for girls (hohere Tochterschule), in which a few male guests are tolerated. 
An even more pathetic impression is made by the isolated male students that have 
wandered into the normal schools. a 

NORMAL INSTRUCTION. 
[From report of Doctor Kuypers.] 

Historical. — Doctor Kuypers in his report introduces a special section devoted to 
normal instruction, with a short historical note, in which he credits Horace Mann 
with successful efforts, due to Prussian influence, leading to the establishment at 
Lexington, Mass., of the first American normal school. He notices the distrust with 
which this innovation was received and the difficulty of finding a practise school, 
because of the general lack of appreciation of the fact that teachers needed prepara- 
tion in the art of instruction. About the middle of the nineteenth century, however, 
other States followed the example of Massachusetts, and to-day, Doctor Kuypers 
reports, all the States of the Union have normal schools. 

Lack of trained teachers. — He finds that altho the number of teachers trained in such 
schools has increased to an extraordinary extent during the past few decades, it is 
still very small compared with the entire number of teachers. "Even to-day the 
teachers of district schools as a rule have had no normal training, and a considerable 
number of them no special preparation of any kind." 

This, without doubt, is due, he holds, to the impossibility of meeting the steadily 
growing need of properly trained teachers, for "that there is no longer any lack of 
appreciation of normal training on the part of State governments is proved by the 
character and equipment of the normal school buildings." 

Buildings and equipment. — These are structures of noble style, generally erected in 
charming and quiet locations, spacious and excellent in taste, provided with gymna- 
sium, assembly room, library and reading rooms, study rooms, drawing and music 
halls, especially equipped rooms for biology, natural history, geography, history, and, 
above all else, with well-constructed laboratories for physics, for chemistry, and for 
physiology. To these are added everywhere school kitchens and workshops for 
manual training. The reception and rest rooms of the students, the parlors and con- 
ference rooms of the faculty, remind one in their equipment of an elegant home 
rather than of an educational institution. 

Classical statues, as of Venus of Milo and Apollo Belvedere, and valuable repro- 
ductions of masterpieces of ancient and modern art in every room and corridor, make 
of the normal school an educational institution ideally adapted to its high purpose. 

Frequently dormitories and boarding houses for the students are connected with 
the school, choice and homelike in equipment, and respecting the privacy of 
occupants. & 

Characteristics. — It is noted that these schools differ in scope and method of instruc- 
tion; that they are open to all sects and to both sexes, altho practically the students 
are almost exclusively women; that instruction is gratuitous to residents of the State; 
and that, while there is a distinct effort to make the instruction exclusively pro- 
fessional, many of their courses still are academic. 

Used for general culture. — As a consequence of the last point Doctor Kuypers finds 
that many students continue to use the normal schools for purposes of general cul- 
ture, and this the more so as they are not subject to after-payment of tuition, if they 
fail to take up the profession. This also explains the fact that the high attendance 
of many normal schools, in many instances exceeding 1,000, is out of proportion 
with the number of trained teachers annually at the disposal of the State. 

Course of study. — With reference to the course of study he notes that it usually 
extends over two years, requiring for entrance high school graduation, and directs 
special attention to bookkeeping and civics as subjects of instruction, also to the 

aReiseberichte, p. 41. Mbid., p. 57. 



DRAWING AND ART INSTRUCTION. 25 

great prominence given to laboratory work and to independent experiments on the 
part of students in the several departments of natural science. As directly prepar- 
ing for teaching he mentions the study of the human body, psychology, " the favorite 
study of the American teacher," general and special method, history of education, 
school management, and school laws, as well as sufficient practise in teaching in a 
practise school connected with the institution or placed at its disposal by the local 
school board. 

Frequently, distinctive courses are offered for special teachers, more particularly 
in manual training and domestic science. Almost universally we find also a special 
kindergarten department, with a kindergarten connected with the practise school. « 

In further elaboration he points out that " most of the large cities have their own 
normal schools for their local needs, and in order to afford the daughters of the city 
opportunity for an independent position," and that some normal schools have three 
and four year courses for elementary school principals, high school teachers, and 
school supervisors. 

The elite, however [he continues], are found in post-graduate courses. These are 
attended by teachers who, after graduation, have improved themselves by practise 
and return to their alma mater. To these select classes the schools admit also others 
who, after graduation from a college course, wish to supplement their scientific edu- 
cation with pedagogic training. * * * 

For teachers who are engaged in work, and can not leave their positions for the 
purpose of advanced training, there are vacation courses, summer courses, and Satur- 
day courses connected with the normal schools. b 

Other opportunities — In addition to these public normal schools Doctor Kuypers 
mentions private normal schools (which, however, do not confine themselves to the 
preparation of teachers) , public and private teachers' institutes, reading circles, and 
summer schools of the Chautauqua type. 

Teachers. — The teachers of normal schools he reports as being well prepared by 
experience and culture; in the higher positions, mostly college graduates. Also, he 
mentions as significant, "that the leading normal schools require for admission 
graduation from a four-year high school course, and that teachers of high schools 
usually consider a call by a normal school as a promotion and an improvement in 
their position. ' ' c 

In a few instances he finds, also, instead of separate normal schools, normal depart- 
ments in connection with higher institutions of learning. 

Normal colleges. — For more comprehensive and more systematic, scientific, and 
pedagogic culture than is usually afforded by the normal school, and for the purpose 
of enabling teachers to secure a degree (B. A.), normal colleges of recognized rank 
offer courses of four to five years to graduates of high schools. By continuing their 
studies such students may advance to the degree of M. A., or, if their studies were 
related to pedagogic sciences, to that of doctor of pedagogics. * * * 

Teachers' college. — The climax of pedagogic education, however, is afforded by the 
teachers' college, a pedagogic professional school of university rank, with require- 
ments for admission similar to those of academic professional schools of other 
faculties. a 

For further remarks of Doctor Kuypers on normal schools, see page 15, under 
the heading of "General Considerations." 

DRAWING AND ART INSTRUCTION. 

Extensive and interesting observations on the subject of drawing are found in the 
reports of Doctor Muthesius, Director Thorrnalen, Professor Schick, and Councilor 
v. Czihak. The following synopsis will confine itself chiefly to the presentation of 
the statements of these reports concerning the merits and results of the American 
treatment of this subject of instruction. 

a Reiseberichte, p. 59. ft Ibid., pp. 58-59. c Ibid., p. 61. 

19952— Xo. 2—07 4 



26 GEKMAIST VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

TFrora the report of Councilor v. Czihak.] 

Leading ideas. — The leading ideas [writes Councilor v. Czihak] of American 
instruction in drawing [in the elementary school] are those laid down by Herbert 
Spencer in his work on Education. What the children, left to themselves, like to 
draw, is to be drawn: Things in their environment, which in size, shape, color, or 
motion excite their attention, life forms, utensils, animals, human beings. * * * 
The drawing of straight, curved, and composite lines for exercise is wholly rejected 
by Spencer, as in general the drawing from copy. Furthermore, he places greater 
value upon the rendering of color impressions than upon that of outline. He lays down 
the principle thatitis of less importance that the child produce beautiful drawings than 
that skill in drawing be developed. Howsoever crude and awkward their first efforts 
in form and color, the natural interest of the children in drawing should be encour- 
aged. With increased experience, in the place of striking incidents, the children 
would of themselves gradually succeed in the better observation and truer representa- 
tion of simple objects. For the first years, Spencer considers regular instruction in 
drawing scarcely practicable, but only encouragement in rather desultory graphic 
work. On the whole, he condemns the construction of a course of drawing on the 
basis of its elements — combinations of lines — for the same reason for which he con- 
demns in language instruction the practise of beginning with grammatical analysis, 
because in instruction the abstract should never precede the concrete, nor scientific 
ideas experience or doing. « 

On this basis, Councilor v. Czihak reports, the Prang series of text-books has been 
compiled in such a way that teachers will find it easy to make changes in them in 
accordance with local needs or their personal views. With reference to the program 
of this series, he concludes: 

In reading [this program] one is inclined to doubt its practicability, and still more 
its success. These depend, indeed, upon the selection made from the abundance of 
dishes and the manner of serving them. In point of fact the inspection at the 
Exposition of the drawing books of individual pupils compelled the admission that 
both these things are done with skill and taste by the American drawing teachers. & 

Uniformity of treatment. — A surprising feature in this subject of instruction is the 
great uniformity in its treatment from New York to California, and from the Can- 
adian to the Mexican boundary line. Nowhere can drawing from copies be found; 
everywhere drawing instruction is built up on the basis of kindergarten work 
(so-called constructive work) on paper folding, stick laying, freehand cutting, clay 
modeling, weaving, and sewing, in accordance with an expanded Froebelian system. 
Everywhere there is drawing not only from nature and from objects, but also from 
memory, and even drawing from imagination; the sketching, e. g., of simple land- 
scapes and designs is carried on, with help, it is true. This is accompanied in all 
grades with the development of the color sense and of the same for the values of tints 
and shades, of the sense for rhythm, balance, harmony, and distribution of masses. 
It is an instruction of exceptional efficacy in the development of taste, compared with 
which our drawing instruction in the elementary school [Volksschule] appears 
almost one sided. c 

Trifling results. — On the other hand, he expresses still greater astonishment at 
finding the evidences of the influence of this drawing so slight in the work of indus- 
trial art schools, in the widely distributed dilettanteism, and in the American home. 

"Either," he adds, "the current method followed in drawing [in the elementary 
school] has been too recently introduced to have had any influence, or it does not go 
deep enough in its effect, or our faith in the taste-developing force of the instruction 
in drawing is not justified. In any event, the United States is in this, as in so many 
other points, the 'land of contrasts.' " c In a subsequent paragraph he refers the 
beginning of the current method to the year 1888, which seems to place the burden 
of lack of influence upon the exceeding newness of the method. 

[From the report of Doctor Muthesius.] 

To this general sketch Doctor Muthesius, who reports on drawing with special 
reference to industrial art, adds a number of instructive supplementary items. He, 

a Reiseberichte, p. 195. << Ibid., pp. 195-190. c Ibid., p. 193. 



DRAWING AND ART INSTRUCTION. 27 

too, finds the beginning and basis of drawing instruction in the kindergarten, and 
continues: 

Fundamental principles. — In the elementary school proper drawing instruction soon 
assumes a more definite form; but one point of view is never lost sight of, namely, 
that drawing instruction is concerned with an artistic activity. America lacks 
altogether those European points of view, that the children need at first, for the 
exercise of hand and eye, geometrical models for free-hand copying, or that, in order 
to become familiar with the various modes of representation, they should draw from 
copies. The American idea is, in the first place, to represent objects that are or have 
been seen, and, in the second place, as soon as possible to attempt independent 
artistic composition in small sketches and constructive work. 

Contrasts with European ideas. — The old European idea that drawing and painting 
from nature are too difficult for the child, and that only the adult can be permitted 
to deal with nature — and he only after drawing from copies and dead plaster casts — 
has no place in America, and would be received there as a myth. Also the Ameri- 
can children are given from the start all the means of graphic representation; they 
handle from the beginning brush and paints, crayon and pen. Also in this the 
American idea is opposed to the old European idea which considers aquarelle paint- 
ing as especially difficult and to be learned only by older pupils. 

Drawing from nature. — In the majority of American elementary schools * * * 
drawing from nature is practised from the lowest grades on, and in this practise 
preference is given to plants and flowers, which are represented directly with brush 
and water color. The plant is placed at some distance from the group of pupils, and 
these attempt to fix the general appearance of the object, partly without previous 
pencil sketch, in water color. 

Of course, if the pupils were required to render the object correctly in these draw- 
ings, many defects would be found, especially in the lower grades. The pictures are 
more or less schematic; foreshortening, the foldings of leaves, etc., are usually not 
represented. On the other hand, the freedom with which the general impression is 
fixt, and the taste with which this is rendered in color, are frequently surprising. « 

Human figure. — In subsequent paragraphs, Doctor Muthesius refers to the drawing 
of the human figure, which also "affords surprising indications of power of observa- 
tion and pleasing instances of naive artistic rendering;" to free sketching, from 
imagination and memory, relating to historical events, fairy stories, or to the repre- 
sentation of things previously seen. " In the upper grades there is added to these 
things the more accurate drawing of simple and complex objects." 

Designing. — Running parallel with representative drawing, he finds from the start 
practise in designing borders, etc., based on plant forms or on motives chosen from 
historic ornament, together with the application of such designs in the decoration 
of lamp shades, book covers, etc. "In these objects one finds generally indications 
of very good taste, more especially in the choice of elegant and harmonious color- 
ing." He notes also in this connection the tendency to apply the growing art appre- 
ciation of the children to various forms of manual work in leather, wood, clay, etc. 

High school instruction. — With reference to the work of the high school, "where 
instruction in drawing and manual training is continued on similar lines," Doctor 
Muthesius makes special mention of monochromatic landscape drawing, which finds 
"its chief value in the cultivation of taste and in training the eye for appreciation of 
scenic beauty." 

As connected with artistic drawing, he notes furthermore with approval ' ' a sort of 
applied esthetics," in the contemplation of works of art of which small reproduc- 
tions are placed in the children's hands, for discussion by the teacher and subsequent 
written account by the children. While he admits the doubtful character of such 
instruction, unless it is conducted by a teacher of artistic bent, he still considers it 
superior to the current art history in higher German schools, inasmuch as it deals 
with concrete material placed before the pupil. 

Supervision. — He attributes the success of American instruction in drawing chiefly 
to its highly organized system of supervision by well- trained special teachers, and 

a Reiseberichte, p. 135. 



28 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

refers with much approval to the preparation of such supervisors by "the normal 
school for drawing teachers in Boston. This school," he adds, "furnishes a type 
worthy of imitation as an institution for the training of elementary and middle 
school teachers of technical and artistic drawing." 

Summary. — In conclusion, Doctor Muthesius sums up his impressions in the general 
judgment, that " in its general spirit and principles American instruction in drawing 
is excellent and worthy of imitation," and adds: 

The results of the instruction, too, in the lower grades exceed all expectations. In 
the advanced grades, however, they do not wholly accord with this auspicious 
beginning. While the work of the children of eight or nine years is so admirable, 
the pupils of fifteen or sixteen often offer correspondingly little that is satisfactory. 
We should expect from the pupils of the highest grades that in drawing from nature they 
would have the ability to see form clearly and to apprehend an object accurately. 
But instruction has failed to develop a disposition to see clearly; the plant drawings 
of the 16-year-old pupils frequently present the same schematic picture as those 
of the lower grades. Manifestly, this is due to the fact that instruction wholly 
neglects exercises in accuracy. One is forcibly reminded of the desultory method 
of piano instruction that plays only parlor pieces without introducing the ringer 
exercises necessary for the systematic progress of the pupil. « 

[From the report of Director Thbrmalen.] 

In a short account of drawing in American schools, Director Thormiilen agrees in 
his views with Doctor Muthesius, emphasizing more particularly the value of the 
"excellent organization " due to the system of supervision; the value of flower draw- 
ing from memory, which " best counteracts the danger of losing oneself in details;" 
the importance of landscape drawing, more particularly in middle schools; the fact 
that the drawing of ornament, on the basis of previous illustrations by the teacher, 
is more invention than copying and is a method that "cultivates the taste, gives the 
pupils an idea of the value of artistic work, and thereby a criterion for estimating 
the achievements of others." He also notes the striking inferiority of the results 
obtained in high schools as compared with the elementary schools. 

[From the report of Professor Schick.] 

Professor Schick supplements these statements with a discussion of the influence 
of J. Liberty Tadd,'Arthur Dow, Den man Ross, Hugo Froelich, and Bonnie E. Snow 
upon the development of methods. 

./. Liberty Tadd. — To J. Liberty Tadd he accords " the significant merit" of having 
first emphasized drawing from nature and from memory, but finds in the schools 
small indications of Tadd's advocacy of ambidextrous drawing after motives of Greek 
and Renaissance ornament. To his method in the drawing of ornament he con- 
cedes "a certain value in the development of manual dexterity and of the control of 
the hands by the will and intellect, which represents Tadd's chief purpose," but 
criticizes the "unquestionable loss of the finer appreciation of form which must be 
sacrificed in the acquisition of these external forms of skill." 

Arthur Dow. — In Arthur Dow he recognizes a student of Japanese art principles 
and a successful advocate of idealism in art, who "in his instruction inverts the way 
ordinarily followed in art instruction." 

"He [Dow] considers it wrong to begin with leading the pupil to the control of the 
tools of art, thru the drawing from plaster casts, perspective," etc., holding that 
"the essence of art lies not in the correct rendering of nature, but in beauty, which, 
in its turn, depends on the knowledge of the laws of composition." Professor Schick 
doubts, on the whole, the cogency and practicability of Dow's ideas, but concedes 
the value of his insistence on proportion of line and surface, and on the picturesque 
contrasts of light and shade in every phase of instruction in drawing, more par- 



a Reiseberiehte, p. 137. 



DRAWING AND ART INSTRUCTION. 29 

ticularly in schools of industrial art, where this insistence is "of inestimable value, 
inasmuch as, in these, simple designs afford opportunity for easy application and 
clear explanation of these principles."" 

With reference to the same topic, Dow's influence upon American drawing, Coun- 
cilor v. Czihak writes: "It is remarkable how prominent a place the composition of 
landscapes occupies in American [elementary] drawing instruction. On the other 
hand, I note that I have not found in any art school or art academy a special class 
in landscape drawing, and only in one of them a few pictures of landscapes. Again, 
then, the land of contrasts." & 

Dernnan Ross. — With reference to Denman Ross, Professor Schick limits himself to 
the bare mentioning of the fact that Ross is about to publish an extended work on 
the subject of color effects. On the other hand, Councilor v. Czihak gives a succinct 
account of his theory and method, states that his color theory has attained "wide 
reputation," and has been accepted in No. 5 of Prang's series of text-books, but 
refrains from further comment. 

Hugo Froelich and Bonnie E. Snow. — Concerning Hugo Froelich and Bonnie E. Snow, 
Professor Schick is content to introduce them as the editors of a series of "text-books 
of art instruction " which "is still to be tried." He finds that these texts, among 
other things, partly utilize the methods of Dow and Ross; emphasizes that they begin 
at once with landscape presentation in color, and that, with the aid of free-hand cut- 
ting and other occupations, they succeed with manifest skill in making the first 
drawing instruction "a kind of play;" notes their varied and comprehensive charac- 
ter, and closes with the statement that "with the completion of the work the children 
will doubtless leave the school as finished artists — if, indeed, they do all these things 
as excellently as they are represented in the books themselves." c 

Certain instructive remarks on the application of the above observations to German 
conditions are so intimately connected with industrial art that it is thought best to 
postpone the synopsis of this portion of Professor Schick's report to the section treat- 
ing of industrial art. 

[From the Report of Councilor v. Czihak.] 

Art schools. — Councilor v. Czihak devotes a few paragraphs* to art instruction. After 
enumerating a number of typical art academies, art schools connected Avith museums, 
art departments of universities and colleges, art departments of institutions of a poly- 
technic or universal character, and institutions conducted "on a business basis," he 
continues : 

The instruction in the majority of these institutions is conducted in the conven- 
tional fashion borrowed from European art academies and art schools. Drawing and 
modeling from plaster casts and from the antique play a very prominent part in pre- 
paratory instruction; subsequently, drawing and modeling from life are carried on 
quite extensively by both sexes separately; still life, too, receives much attention. 
Nearly all schools have a class for portraiture, and, as a special American peculiarity, 
an illustration class, which is usually connected with a so-called composition class. 
The illustration classes are generally well attended, since illustration for the numer- 
ous magazines is a well-paid occupation and in great favor with women. Landscape 
painting is almost wholly absent; occasionally there is found an etching class; his- 
torical painting I have not seen. 

On an average three-fourths and more of the students belong to the female sex; 
everywhere dilettanti constitute a considerable percentage of the pupils. 

On the whole these schools do not attain the standard of our art academies, con- 
ducted by artists of reputation. Evidently they lack teachers of high standing in 
art and the needed art atmosphere. Persons rejected by Europe, and graduates of 
the institutions, frequently serve as teachers and professors. The work thruout is 
only mediocre. A few of these schools, in States that have no special normal art 
schools, train drawing teachers or utilize Saturdays for the training of such teachers. a 

aReiseberichte, p. 168. &Ibid., p. 197. o Ibid., p. 169. dibid., p. 201. 



30 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

INDUSTRIAL ART SCHOOLS. 

[From report of Doctor Muthesius.] 

Present condition of industrial art. — With regard to the present condition of indus- 
trial art in America, Doctor Muthesius reports: 

The prospect that German industrial art will at some day play a leading part in the 
American market is not precluded, seeing that the characteristic industrial achieve- 
ments of America are as yet unpretentious and quite undeveloped. While, indeed, 
school instruction is laying a foundation for a certain artistic receptivity on the part 
of the American, the consequences of this instruction have not as yet been estab- 
lished in American industrial art. Furthermore, it is strikingly evident that the 
propitious beginnings of the transfer to America of the English industrial-art move- 
ment in Morris's time have not exerted a pervading influence. Evidently the 
English arts-and-crafts idea was too primitive and rustic for American feeling, so 
that the influence of England extends to only a small part of America's industrial 
product, more particularly to a certain kind of furniture, to ceramics, and to a few 
forms of metal work.« 

On the other hand, Doctor Muthesius credits the American furniture manu- 
facturers with ingenuity and commendable regard for comfort in the construction of 
rocking-chairs, lounging chairs, certain varieties of armchairs, folding furniture, 
lawn swings, etc., "from which the foreigner can learn much;" refers in terms of 
commendation to America's achievements in the treatment of art glass, in which 
"America has opened positively new paths, and exerted a decisive influence even 
upon European art in very many directions;" lauds in similar terms American 
typography and book manufacture as superior in taste and certain features of work- 
manship to German production; eulogizes the illustration of books and magazines 
as "possibly on a higher level than that reached by any other country," and 
accords highest praise to American dressmaking. 

Woman's dress. — The American woman [he adds] is to-day without doubt the 
best-drest woman in the world. This is due in a large measure to the independence 
and high personal culture of American women. The English mode of the education 
of the fair sex and the universal respect for woman have been developed in America 
to a degree that brings to mind directly the Germanic cult of women in the middle 
ages. From this there has arisen a wholly free development of the character of 
woman, who, with clear consciousness and high estimation of her own value, knows 
how to secure herself in her position. As one of the manifestations of this self- 
reliance, we must view the feminine dress. It differs from the dress of the Parisian 
woman in its expression of the self-consciousness of its wearer. While the Parisian 
dress is determined exclusively by fashion and the dressmaker, the dress of the 
American woman makes the impression that she has herself aided in its fabrication, 
and that, at all events, her personal taste and adjustment to her corporeal and spir- 
itual individuality have had great weight therein. While the Parisian wears her 
fashionable dress coquettishly, the American woman appears in hers with self- 
consciousness and with a personal bearing that compels respect. Her dress is less 
eccentric and artificial. It has as a whole more unity and is better planned than the 
Parisian fashionable dress. Above all it gives evidence of indisputable taste in the 
choice of color. & 

On the whole, Doctor Muthesius deplores the fact that " with reference to indus- 
trial art the American exhibit [at Saint Louis] was less interesting and complete than 
those of other countries, and far below the expectations which the foreigner must 
necessarily bring to it." 

Machine vork. — To these statements Director Thornuden adds the following note 
on the character of American machine-made furniture: 

This American machine work reaches out in a certain fashion toward the ideal of 
turning out simple, serviceable, and beautiful furniture at low cost, an ideal from 
which we are far removed in Germany. It is evident from the differences in the 
methods of work that it is not an easy matter to produce in large quantities by 
machinery furniture in the same forms as those made by hand. Therefore, if the 

a Reiseberichte, pp. 130-131. folbid., p. 134. 



INDUSTRIAL ART SCHOOLS. 31 

machine work, too, is to become artistic in character the plans of the artist must be 
adapted to these differences in the method of production. This peculiarity of 
machine work by its own nature compels the artist to develop a peculiar style, and 
in such development the Americans are far in advance of us, while, on the other 
hand, they will require a long time to overtake us in hand work.« 

[From report of Professor Schick.] 

Character of industrial art instruction. — With reference to instruction bearing on 
industrial art, Professor Schick finds a tendency in its direction in the entire educa- 
tional system of the United States. He writes : 

The educational system of the United States of North America presents, like all 
else in this singular country, a character differing completely from ours. Its instruc- 
tion is directed as much toward general culture as toward training in technical 
and art matters. And it not only differs from European systems, but it shows also 
the incongruous contrasts of high development and scarcely appreciable beginnings 
peculiar to every relation in the life of this country. But in one direction one great 
universal tendency pervades the educational work — the tendency toward the practical 
utility of what is learned. The amplitude and diversity of trade, the mighty devel- 
opment of the technical arts and of all factors depending on them, have brought it 
about that the whole American people is permeated by a technical spirit. And this 
technical spirit is revealed already in the public schools with their often magnifi- 
cently equipped shops for wood and metal work, and their instruction in textile work 
a ;d casting; it continues in the so-called high school, in the manual training schools, 
with their direct preparation for certain practical callings, up to the university. Con- 
nected with this, too, is the fact that great importance is attached to instruction in 
drawing, because drawing, on the one hand, is absolutely required in every technical 
vocation, and because, on the other hand, it affords the best foundation for the devel- 
opment of acuteness of vision for all external things in life. In this, too, it is signifi- 
cant that even the institutions that give the highest culture in drawing and in art 
generally, the academies, do not, as with us, pursue only the highest and ideal aims, 
but are essentially institutions for the training of illustrators of American journals 
and magazines, and are besides concerned, with few exceptions, with subjects of in- 
dustrial art, such as pottery, bookbinding, and the like. 

Multiplicity of subjects in industrial art schools. — A further peculiarity of American 
school organization — partly explicable from practical points of view but, perhaps, 
also due to the American idea that all that is practically serviceable is equally valuable 
and important — consists in the fact that the apparently most incongruous and dis- 
connected subjects are found united in one and the same institution. The Pratt Insti- 
tute in Brooklyn and the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia furnish in this regard the 
greatest examples. Thus, e. g., in the Pratt Institute, waiving university instruction, 
pretty much every phase of general and technical instruction from the kindergarten on 
is represented. And the Drexel Institute, an institution more for adults, has fourteen 
departments, * * * as well as extensive collections, among them even a valuable 
collection of pictures. The universities, too, are organized very differently from 
ours, comprising not only the subjects current with us, but also all higher technical, 
agricultural, and other branches of instruction. & 

Other institutions. — In further elucidation, Professor Schick mentions "technical 
schools, trade schools, and manual training schools," established and maintained by 
communities, private individuals, and church organizations. "Many of these have 
no further purpose beyond enabling young people in a few months to secure some 
ever so humble position, and then thru evening instruction in the same or other 
schools to gain further training and to fit themselves for better positions." 

Women as pupils and as teachers.— As an especially striking feature of industrial 
schools and industrial art schools, he points to the participation of women in this 
work, not only as pupils but also as instructors and managers. He notes that while 
in Germany women are admitted as pupils by art-industrial, and even by commercial 
schools, the number of female pupils in American schools of art and art-industry is 
far greater than that of men. He is equally amazed at the great number of subjects 
chosen by them, finding them occupied "not only with designs for manual activities 

a Reiseberichte, p. 147. 6 Ibid., pp. 156-157. 



32 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

adapted to women — bookbinding and the like — but also with the drafting of machines 
and architecture, nay even at the anvil, hammer in hand." 

He finds them playing "a wholly extraordinary part," not only as pupils, but 
also as teachers; not only in schools of general culture, but also in industrial art 
schools and academies; not only in classes attended by women, but also in mixt 
classes; not only as teachers, but also as managers and directors. 

Equipment. — He praises the equipment of these schools — naming in illustration 
Pratt, Drexel, and Armour institutes as instances — as "generally very good, and 
often decidedly splendid," the spacious auditoriums, and especially the character 
and extent of the collections of art-industrial objects, and their direct connection 
with the schools. Concerning these collections he adds: 

Altho Germany naturally has much greater wealth of art-industrial collections and 
treasures than America, which lacks a great and artistically rich past, and altho our 
art-industrial collections are frequently, at least, under the same roof with the schools, 
the value of such immediate connection of schools and collections— a connection 
extending also to their management — can not be overestimated; and we behold here 
again the practical sense of the American, whose primary concern is not scientific 
completeness and the accumulation of all material of even the least bearing on the 
different subjects, but above all else that the exhibits should in some fashion enhance 
the value of his own productions and of the instruction given. By this, however, is 
not meant that the American does not know how to appreciate the scientific value 
of collections, for whosoever has seen, e. g., the collection of musical instruments at 
the Metropolitan Museum must have the conviction forced upon him that only the 
most exalted zeal and the completest disregard of cost could call into being such a 
col lection. « 

Further on Professor Schick commends the establishment of restaurants in connec- 
tion with the schools as a measure of great practical value, saving time and vigor, 
and bestows high praise upon the fact that not only the collection rooms, but also 
the class rooms and corridors are frequently decorated with the most beautiful and 
expensive photographs. With reference to the latter point he adds: " Even the 
public elementary schools enjoy such decoration, and many a German professional 
or industrial art school might envy such schools their costly heliogravures and pho- 
tographs of Greek or Italian and the most modern French or English masterpieces 
of art." He deplores, however, that German works of art are met with oidy excep- 
tionally. 

Lighting. — The equipment of the class rooms he finds excellent in character and 
completeness, but criticizes the lighting. In support of his criticism he adduces 
instances in which he saw in laterally lighted class rooms two groups of pupils 
working from models placed on opposite sides of the room, as well as another 
instance in wdiich some thirty students were seated in a large circle around a model, 
so that those placed in the rear could scarcely see to work and had their model 
wholly in the shadow. 

Teaching force. — With regard to the teaching force, be finds first and foremost great 
lack of teachers; fears that in a number of instances "the teacher himself is defi- 
cient in the most necessary requirements, either of skill or conscientiousness or teach- 
ing ability," and expresses the opinion that "in spite of the reverence >due to the 
fidelity, zeal, and other good qualities of the female teachers/' the strong prevalence 
of the fair sex in matters of instruction is not a specially profitable feature of the 
American organization. 

Consequently he does not consider the results of instruction as being of such a 
character as to give to Germans cause for the fear "that we are behind the Amer- 
icans in industrial instruction." " Altho," he continues, " there is ample reason to 
acknowledge that the development of manual instruction in the public schools and 
in special manual training schools for practically technical instruction, in which we 



[Reiseberiehte, p* 159. 



INDUSTRIAL ART SCHOOLS. 33 

are wholly lacking, is sound and in many respects worthy of imitation, neverthe- 
less the specific industrial art schools or academies with art industrial instruction 
can not, even in their practical attainments, remotely compete with our special classes 
or schools for work in precious metals, pottery, forging, etc." « The same he holds 
to be true also with reference to instruction in drawing. 

Prospective. — "How long," Professor Schick concludes, "the superiority of our 
industrial art instruction over that of the Americans will continue it is impossible to 
say. The extraordinary energy of the Americans, their practical sense, the well- 
known generosity of their rich citizens, and the wealth of the communities justify 
the prophecy that when once the deficiencies are recognized they will not rest until 
they have reached the perfection of Europe also in industrial education. ' ' & 

[From report of Doctor Muthesius.] 

General criticism. — Doctor Muthesius writes with reference to industrial art: 

In contrast with the subjects heretofore considered [drawing, manual training, and 
trade schools] instruction in industrial art is somewhat behindhand. * * * The 
American industrial art school is not as yet developed as such; it still bears more the 
character of a school of general art, to which only a few art industrial classes are 
appended. Now, the pursuit of instruction in general art, it is true, would not con- 
stitute a defect if it were founded substantially on technological considerations. This, 
however, is not the case. The course of instruction still is essentially that of an old- 
style art academy, in which the student, by the way of plaster casts and still life, slowly 
approaches nature study. It must be conceded, however, that the drawing from 
plaster casts is carried on in a free and sprightly fashion that is in no way pedantic, 
and, furthermore, that the life work connected with it is in a state of high perfec- 
tion. * * * In all art schools life work is considered of the greatest importance; 
nay, it constitutes the chief element in the instruction of every student. It is there- 
fore no wonder that life work has reached a higher plane than in most of the Ger- 
man schools. 

Textile designs. — Of strictly art industrial subjects, textile design receives occasion- 
ally some consideration, but the results are mostly mediocre, and above all there is 
no trace of the modern spirit that pervades to-day the English and German art indus- 
trial schools; still less does one find a continuation of the happy beginnings in flat 
composition and the tasteful color combination with which one has become familiar 
previously in the drawing of the elementary and middle schools. Nature study in 
the form of the drawing of plants receives more or less attention, but rarely from 
that standpoint of technological applicability which is in place in an art industrial 
school. 

Shop instruction. — Shop instruction has scarcely entered the American art school. 
Only in isolated instances a few workshops are found; thus, e. g., in Chicago a fairly 
well attended ceramic workshop. Bookbinding, too, is found in some schools; also 
occasionally a class for embossing, engraving, and wood carving. On the whole, 
however, the workshop is an interloper of most recent date, and has not as yet by 
any means acquired the right of citizenship. It should, however, be emphasized that 
quite recently workshops have come into favor everywhere, but chiefly so far in con- 
nection with the general instruction in drawing in the middle schools. The tech- 
nological spirit which in Germany prevails in the industrial art school is to be found 
at the present time only in the drawing and manual training of institutions of general 
culture. c 

To this Doctor Muthesius adds at the close of his report the following instructive 
resume of his impressions concerning industrial and art training, including drawing 
and manual training: 

Common school instruction in drawing. — In spite of the many peculiarities of Amer- 
ican industrial and art education, the suggestions which the European schoolman 
carries away with him from America are most prolific and persistent. The common 
school instruction in drawing was an absolute revelation. There are here hints whose 
value can not be minimized by anyone. The whole matter is attacked from a new 
point of view. While current instruction in drawing in Europe was a transferral of 

aReiseberichte, pp. 161-162. ('Ibid., .p. 171. e Ibid., pp. 140-141. 



34 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

academic principles to the children's school, in which the child as an intellectual 
organism received but little consideration, -American instruction in drawing is linked 
in every grade with the natural instinct of activity of the child. It rests upon an 
intimate study of child nature. The results correspond with this sound fundamental 
principle. They can not even be minimized by the observation already made that 
the upper classes do not wholly fulfil what the lower classes promise. 'It would be a 
worthy task for Germany to organize this fundamentally correct system of education 
in such a way as to eliminate the imperfections it shows here. * ' * * 

America has opened neiv paths. — Both in drawing and manual training America has 
opened new paths and furnished an example for the whole world. The quick appre- 
hension on the part of an energetic and practical people under the most flourishing 
conditions of growth has here vindicated the value of points of view that could 
scarcely have found consideration in the old, learned European world, hampered by 
theories and prejudices. The great importance of the two subjects lies in the fact 
that they have to do with the foundation of technical and art education. America 
has here, as it were, begun at the bottom, and, in view of this fact, it does not matter 
so very much that higher instruction is not sufficiently developed and matured. 

Perfection may be attained as soon as the general development demands it, the 
more so as an increasing desire for culture on the part of the people is linked with a 
lavishness in the employment of means and an energy in the carrying out of plans of 
recognized correctness which perhaps to-day are to be found in America alone. 

Industrial and art instruction being rapidly developed. — With reference to industrial 
and art instruction in America the general impressions gained in a tour of inspection 
will also apply: One finds no really finished cultural results, one is disturbed at every 
step by imperfections, and yet no other country to-day affords even approximately 
so rich a harvest of suggestions. Here a thousand germs await future development. 
Everything urges forward, as yet unhampered by reactionary tendencies; the unfin- 
ished and the incomplete eagerly seek perfection. We find ourselves in the midst 
of the fermenting development of a still youthful people. All the deficiencies of 
youth are still there, but they are richly compensated by its points of excellence, by 
its enthusiasm, its cheering hope, the steadfast faith in its success. « 

[From report of Professor Schick.] 

Professor Schick closes his report with a discussion of a number of points of inter- 
est, wherein he sets forth the bearing of his observations in England and America 
on instruction in drawing and art industry in general, but more particularly in 
Germany, b A succinct synopsis of portions of this discussion is here presented: 

Drawing. — In the first place, while he approves the abandonment "of the former 
exclusive drawing of solids and ornaments" in German schools of general culture, he 
fears that instruction has fallen into another extreme and does not sufficiently con- 
sider that in the* artistic education of a people (which is the object aimed at, as well 
as certain practical ends) , it is not enough to train the pupils in the simple and real- 
istic representation of objects of nature, for, altho this contributes to the education 
of the eye and the cultivation of taste, the work of the pupil will in comparison 
with the work of the artist, always be deficient and bungling to a certain degree, and 
the pupil will not be able to attain an appreciation of truly artistic work if he lacks 
opportunity to compare his work with that of a real artist. He will, on the con- 
trary, be led to consider his own defective work as artistic, and "we shall run the 
risk of getting results similar to those of America, i. e., superficial attainments in 
drawing, and the necessity, when later on strictly artistic forms are required, of 
beginning over again." This can hardly fail to affect all who subsequently choose 
an industrial or art industrial calling or architecture, thus proving an injury to many 
of our people, while in America a palliative for this excessive freedom in drawing is 
afforded in the practical work in the shop, requiring the greatest care. 

Ornameid.— He recommends, therefore, for the cultivation of hand and eye, a wider 
use of ornament in German elementary schools, and also the utilization of many of 
the points in Dow's doctrine of composition, which, however, he does not designate. 
He deplores the tendency to exclude the copying of good art drawings or good plas- 
tic models, considering such training indispensable in order "to learn the language 

a Reiseberichte, pp. 142-143. ''Ibid., pp. 172-175. 



TECHNICAL INSTITUTIONS. 35 

of art," and pointing to the utterances of Da Vinci and the practise of Kubens and 
Lenbach in support of his position. He is confirmee! in this position, too, by seeing 
that "not only in conservative England, but also in progressive America, this train- 
ing in drawing from plaster models of ornaments and heads has been retained in art 
industrial schools and academies and is everywhere carried on to a certain extent." 
Similar remarks apply to the drawing of columns and historic ornament. 

Decoration. — He directs attention to the neglect in America of decorative painting 
and the comparative lack of ornamentation, both in schools and in industrial art 
products, and adds: "Altho in many instances this is to be attributed to want of 
needed practise and sufficient skill, and not, primarily, to views and principles of 
art, this reduction of forms to utmost simplicity meets the taste just now current with 
us. The present reaction against an excess of ornamentation * * * is a healthy 
one. For so long as we do not prefer an object that is simple, but good in funda- 
mental shape and well constructed, to one made from inferior material and sur- 
charged with questionable ornament, we have no claim to be considered as an 
esthetically cultured people." While, therefore, Professor Schick holds that the dis- 
continuance, or, at least, the extreme restriction of decorative drawing in trade 
schools and industrial continuation schools would benefit industrial art, he does not 
admit "that its appropriate use is not justifiable and pleasing." Consequently he 
sees "no reason why in our industrial art schools we should adopt the American 
idea and allow ourselves to abstain from placing at the disposal of our pupils the 
resources of art for the richer and richest decoration of the most varied objects." 

Shopwork. — With reference to shopwork in the public schools, he is so pleased 
with its bearing on all-sided development and with the sight of the zeal of the Amer- 
ican boys working at the benches that he is inclined to recommend its adoption for 
Germany, were it not for the complete transformation of the entire school organiza- 
tion entailed thereby. 

With reference to shopwork in industrial art schools, he maintains that the special 
professional instruction in most of the German classes — in fresco painting, modeling, 
wood carving, engraving, etc. — already bears the character of shopwork, and con- 
tinues: "If we add to these our numerous technical schools for special branches of 
industrial art, which in America are almost wholly lacking, there is no doubt that 
in art-industrial workshop instruction we are not only not behind the Americans, but 
surpass them by far. For we have seen that art-industrial instruction, in America 
as well as in England, is mostly carried on as incidental instruction in academies, 
which is equivalent to saying that also with the worker in art industry the general 
artistic culture is looked upon as the more important consideration." 

TECHNICAL COLLEGES AND OTHER ADVANCED TECHNICAL INSTITUTIONS. 
[From report of Professor Gotte.] 

The most connected view of these institutions is contained in Professor Gotte' s 
report, which also dwells on the points of contrast with corresponding institutions 
in Prussia. In the term "technical colleges" he includes polytechnic institutes, 
schools of engineering, and other technical schools of advanced character, and con- 
trasts these chiefly with the technical "high schools" (of university rank) and the 
higher and lower schools for machine construction of Prussia. In the following 
synopsis the chief stress is on the organization and work of the American schools. 

In a few introductory paragraphs he directs attention to the share which wealthy 
industrial leaders and prominent men of learning had in the establishment of such 
schools, and gives credit to the Morrill Act of 1862 for its determining influence in 
their wider diffusion. 

General character. — The majority of the American schools of this character, he 
reports, are not of a special character, but include also the departments of the Ger- 
man universities or are themselves departments of such universities. This he holds 



36 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

to be due to the fact that at the time of the establishment of technical colleges the 
existing universities themselves had not as yet been definitely organized, to the 
example of England, and to certain features of the Morrill Act. Moreover, American 
technical schools almost all aim to be of collegiate or university rank, whereas in 
Germany there are three grades of school of this character, viz., the technical uni- 
versities and the high and elementary mechanical schools. This difference is 
owing to the circumstance that at the time of their origin there was need in America 
of men with technical-college preparation in leading, but not as yet in subordinate, 
positions. "Even in later years," he adds, « "there was no special need for the 
establishment of schools of lower rank." Moreover, "in consequence of the extraor- 
dinary development of industry in newly opened regions of the United States, the 
demand for scientifically trained managing engineers has continued so brisk to the 
most recent days that the existing schools scarcely sufficed to supply the demand." 

Other reasons why a school training was not so generally provided for subordinates 
he finds in the comparative feebleness of social and class distinctions, the high esti- 
mate placed on purely practical as compared with intellectual work, the consequent 
disposition to promote workers trained in the school of practice to higher positions 
in factory and office, and the prominent tendency to specialize and to standardize in 
machine construction, which latter served to enhance the value of practical experi- 
ence and purely mechanical work. 

Moreover, the need of trained material for lower positions is not felt, inasmuch as 
graduates of technical colleges pass thru such positions on entrance into practical life, 
for the purpose of initiation in practical work. 

Courses. — As to the courses of the technical colleges in contrast with those of a 
Prussian school, Professor Gotte selects the technical high school at Aachen. He 
notes "at once the following material differences:" 

1. The courses of study of the technical colleges include in most instances a num- 
ber of subjects of instruction which with us are disposed of in preparatory institu- 
tions, more particularly the modern languages (English, German, French), history, 
and lower mathematics. 

2. Instruction in chemistry and the exercises connected therewith have much 
more time allotted to them than in Prussian institutions. 

3. The same is true of exercises in the physical laboratory and in the laboratory 
for machine construction. 

4. The courses of instruction (in American schools) include not only scientific 
instruction, but also "practical work" in the school workshops. b 

Another sharply pronounced difference he finds in the treatment of the material 
of instruction, in the fact that, contrary to the expectation of the European visitor 
of a decided leaning to practical affairs in the technical instruction, he meets in 
many instances the very opposite, viz., strong emphasis upon theory and neglect of 
actual sketching and constructive design. 

The strong emphasis upon chemistry he looks upon as a survival of the beginnings 
of technical instruction, "when, in consequence of lack of material in purely techni- 
cal branches, there was time for such subjects of instruction," and doubts whether 
the mechanical engineer can derive adequate benefit from such extensive practise 
in qualitative and quantitative analysis. 

Mechanical laboratory and drawing. — He notes the prominence given to work in 
the mechanical laboratory, but is astonished at the small number and indifferent 
character of the drawings made by the students in their instruction. These he 
declares to be in many respects inferior to the drawings found in machine shops, and 
is inclined to attribute these faults to the fact " that drawing and sketching in many 
instances are not given in connection with the corresponding lectures, but as an inde- 
pendent subject." 

As contrasted with this insufficient treatment of drawing and designing the strong 
emphasis upon work in the mechanical laboratory seems to him excessive. "With 

a Reiseberichte, p. 220. 6 Ibid., pp. 222-223. 



TECHNICAL INSTITUTIONS. 37 

the current system," he adds, "they do not get out of experimenting and criticiz- 
ing. Already in the lectures everything is critically examined; this is followed by 
criticism on the basis of experiments in the laboratory; independent productive 
and creative doing, as represented in designing, is scarcely ever reached." 

It is sometimes maintained [he adds] that the American students by this 
extensive activity in experimenting at the school are trained in independence, 
because thereby they are enabled to create for themselves the conditions for the 
solution of new problems with ease and certainty; also one often hears that the 
American schools intentionally teach only what the students can not learn in practi- 
cal life. 

All this may be true to a certain extent, but it is equally true that training for 
independence requires not only a critical, but also a creative activity, and that prac- 
tical life in the various positions affords not only opportunity for training in design- 
ing, but also in research. a 

In the inferior development of American technical instruction on the constructive 
side he sees one of the reasons why American machinery, with the exception of tool 
machines, is in many instances imperfect. 

School workshop. — As wholly lacking in the Prussian system, he designates the 
school workshop, which "maybe an imitation of the same devices in Russia and 
France." He finds, however, further reason for this in the following considerations: 

American machine construction is much more specialized than with us; appren- 
ticeship in general is in many instances displaced by a system of young workers 
trained in a very limited specialty. But to give such a special training to a future 
[mechanical] engineer has no purpose whatever; on the other hand, it is repugnant 
to the active American to have persons loafing as volunteers (unpaid learners) in the 
workshop without serious occupation; in short, the American factories are in general 
less fitted for the practical training of future engineers than ours and, therefore, sys- 
tematic training in a school workshop, altho it can not be considered ideal for the 
given purpose, may be preferable to volunteering in an American factory. « 

He reaches, on the basis of the foregoing considerations, the conclusion that "Prus- 
sian graduates must be superior to American graduates, not only because of better 
preparation on entering the technical institution, but also because of the more effec- 
tive formulation of the courses of study." 

Intermediate officials. — He next discusses the adaptation of American technical col- 
leges to the training of "intermediate officials" (machine constructors and superin- 
tendents), and reaches the conclusion that they meet these requirements to only a 
limited extent. 

As constructor [he adds] the intermediate official must above all things be an 
efficient draftsman, and it can not therefore be left to practical life alone to train him 
in this. Furthermore, he must know and be able to compute approved forms of 
construction. On the other hand, it will not be his duty to engage in further research. 
For his training, therefore, thoro instruction in drawing and construction will be 
needed, while the study of higher mathematics and higher mechanics can be dis- 
pensed with and instruction in the mechanical laboratory can be reduced to a com- 
paratively limited amount. 

Similar considerations apply to the factory officials of intermediate grades. As a 
further requirement there enters here also sufficient practical experience, to be gained 
in a manufacturing establishment. 

Ail these requirements receive only limited consideration in the courses of instruc- 
tion of the technical colleges, with their strong emphasis on theory and research 
work, and it is evident that these schools are not particularly well adapted to the 
training of the intermediate technical officials. & 

Prussian organization. — A concise sketch of what Professor Gotte considers as the 
distinguishing characteristics in the organization of Prussian technical "high schoois" 
(of university rank) may prove interesting. He writes: 

In Prussia the difference between the organization of the technical high schools 
[of university rank] on the one hand and that of the middle and lower technical 
schools on the other hand is strictly observed. 

a Reiseberichte, p. 225. &Ibid., p. 226. 



38 GERMAN VIEWS OE AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

In the high schools there is freedom of teaching and learning; the young men 
receive their complete mental equipment for later scientific progress; the professional 
instruction is conceived on a large scale; they do not enter into the most minute 
details, but leave it to the student to avail himself also of professional literature and 
other material for study. 

On the other hand, there prevails in the schools for machine construction compul- 
sory attendance; the subjects of instruction are uniformly prescribed in the courses of 
instruction for all schools; instruction does not take the form of lectures, but is teach- 
ing (imparting of knowledge) in the strictest sense of the word thru the giving of 
information, question and answer; the teacher must to a certain extent incur the 
responsibility for the work of the pupils, and the professional instruction is directly 
adjusted to the needs of a future constructor of details or factory official. The con- 
structions and drawings, therefore, are derived almost without exception from orig- 
inal plans, which serve as models and which are obtained from good machine shops 
and kept in the collections. Larger sketches are as much as possible avoided; on the 
other hand, the greatest stress is laid on the execution of correct workshop drawings. « 

In subsequent pages he gives a full account, without further comment, of the 
organization and courses of study of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the 
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the Stevens Institute of Technology, the School of 
Engineering of Columbia University, Sibley College, the Urbana (111.) College of 
Engineering, and the Drexel and Pratt institutes. 

More favorable in many respects are the reports bearing on Technical Colleges by 
Councilor Beckert, Director E. Beil, and Director Sellentin. 

[From report of Councilor Beckert.] 

Requirements for admission. — Councilor Beckert, in his treatment of engineering 
schools of universities and colleges, first notes that while none of them require for 
admission graduation from a college, a number of them place their requirements so 
high that graduation from a high school can not satisfy them and consequently rec- 
ommend previous college attendance; that most of them, however, are content with 
graduation from a four-years high school, and that a few of them are even more 
lenient. 

Character of the instruction. — His further remarks he proposes to base on an institu- 
tion which requires only graduation from a four-years high school, and continues: 

But, however light the requirements may be, instruction in the fundamental sci- 
ences goes further everywhere than in the higher schools for machine construction 
in Prussia; everywhere in mathematics, e. g., the infinitesimal calculus is studied. 
On the other hand, on the theoretical side of professional instruction proper, the 
technical colleges probably do not come up to our schools; at any rate, this instruc- 
tion is less specialized, and is limited, in the main, to motors and transmissions, for 
in none of the numerous courses of study examined and in none of the schools vis- 
ited did the reporter find instruction in lifting and tool machines. 

This deficiency in theoretical instruction is, however, amply compensated by the 
much stronger emphasis on experiment. The exercises in the laboratories occupy so 
large a place in the course of instruction that, in fact, every student has opportunity 
to familiarize himself thru his own experiments with the natural laws whose appli- 
cation is taught in the technical sciences, with the testing of construction material, 
with the care and testing of steam boilers, and machines of every description, and 
with much else. & 

With reference to the method of instruction, he writes further on: 

In theoretical instruction most of the institutions deviate very much from the 
method current in Germany. The low weekly number of lesson hours (on an aver- 
age 30 ) indicates to how considerable an extent the independent activity of the student 
is utilized. This consists in the study of text-books, from which, from lesson to 
lesson, sections are assigned. The teacher's activity, then, consists chiefly in ques- 
tioning the student as to what he has learned, in giving him practise in the solution 
of problems on the blackboard, and in explaining the parts not understood. This is 
supplemented with lectures, combined with experiments, according to the character 

a Reiseberichte, p. 227. 6 Ibid., p. 289. 



TECHNICAL INSTITUTIONS. 39 

and requirements of the subject. The instruction in the mother tongue consists 
largely of practise in extemporaneous speaking and in debating, and has, therefore, 
the purpose of preparing for public life. a 

Labor-saving devices. — Councilor Beckert mentions with approval "the extraordi- 
nary development of helps in teaching, which save labor for the students," such as 
typewritten and manifolded synopses of lectures, numerical tables, and diagrams, 
which save copying, also blueprints, etc. ; devotes a paragraph to the advantages of 
distributing manifolded problems, thus avoiding "time-consuming dictation," and 
another to the extended use of the stereopticon, and, more particularly, to the pho- 
tographic enlargement of stereoptic views. "These facilities," he adds, "require, 
however, assistants, who are employed in amazing numbers in the American schools, 
but are wholly lacking in ours." 

Drawing. — With reference to drawing, he shares to a large extent the unfavorable 
view of Professor Gotte. "They spend too much time on preparatory exercises," 
he writes, & " and in many instances use antiquated methods. In mechanical draw- 
ings the median lines are often lacking, the entering of measurements is incomplete, 
almost universally shading lines are used to emphasize form, and shading is still 
done with hatching lines. The coloring of materials is scarcely ever used." 

On the other hand, methods of work were observed that are worthy of imitation, 
such as drawing upon a very firm but very thin paper, which admits of the immedi- 
ate production of blueprints of the original drawing; the extensive use of paper ruled 
in squares, facilitating and expediting the work; rapid sketching in a given time 
(twenty down to four minutes); sketching in axometric projection for the cultiva- 
tion of the perceptive faculty; the giving out of very simple sketches of two pro- 
jections of a body to be represented, from which the third projection, sections-, etc., 
are to be derived. The model itself they merely exhibit before the student, and 
therefore a single model will suffice for many students. Compared with the practise in 
Prussia, of letting each student draw directly from the model, this means a very con- 
siderable economizing in the teaching apparatus. 

He closes his report on this phase of technical instruction, without further com- 
ment, with a somewhat detailed account of laboratory exercises. 

[From report of Director Sellentin.] 

In his report on shipbuilding, etc., Director Sellentin devotes several paragraphs 
to technical instruction. On the whole he agrees with his colleagues, yet the fol- 
lowing notes may be of interest: 

Workshop practise. — With reference to the workshops connected with technical 
colleges, he writes: 

The work in the school shops has the one advantage over the work in factories 
current with us — that the student is systematically trained and that the lectures can 
go hand in hand with the practical work. * * * In spite of the short time [221 
to 748 hours] it is possible to attain very satisfactory knowledge of work and manual 
skill, while the German factory students and volunteers [unpaid learners] frequently 
manifest an amazing ignorance of the simplest kinds of work. * * * 

The method, however, has the disadvantage that the student remains ignorant of 
the conditions under which the work must be carried on in the factories, and that he 
remains a stranger to intercourse with the workmen. A combination of the Ameri- 
can and German methods — one year of shop practise in a factory before entering the 
school and systematic training in the school workshop during a three years' course 
of instruction in connection with the instruction in technology — might yield for the 
middle professional schools the most favorable results. c 

Laboratory practise. — In the laboratory practise he recognizes "the best part of 
American technical instruction;" acknowledges the stress laid on simplicity in the 
experiments, exactness of measurements, and clearness of records — the record books 
being models of excellence; praises the completeness of equipment, and adds "that 

a Reiseberiehte, p. 290. b Ibid., p. 291. c Ibid., p. 336. 



40 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

pupils on first entering the school are required to prove that they have worked in 
physical and chemical school laboratories, and that consequently they have already 
had not inconsiderable practise in observing and measuring." 

General impression. — The general impression [he concludes] left by the inspec- 
tion of American technical schools is thruout favorable. It is true one is at first 
inclined, from the apparently insufficient treatment of constructive branches, to con- 
clude quite generally that the instruction in them is superficial; yet this would do 
injustice to the institutions. That improvement is needed in this respect has been 
repeatedly acknowledged by the parties concerned, and a serious effort is being 
made to eliminate the chief cause of this defect, viz., the appointment of teachers 
who are too young and inexperienced. On the other hand, the defect is not felt to 
be of much consequence. According to the American idea, it is the chief business 
of the schools to treat that side of technics which the pupil can not learn in the 
experience of practical life; hence the strong preference for experiment and theory 
by which evidently much good is accomplished. The student is not to be graduated 
as a finished engineer of construction, but he is to be enabled to work himself readily 
into the requirements of practical life on the basis of the understanding of technical 
processes he has acquired. 

The method of instruction distinguishes the institutes of technology sharply from 
our superior schools; the students thruout are lookt upon and treated as pupils. 
Therefore they enter upon practical life without any special pretensions, whereby it 
becomes easier for them to work their way in. Frequently the younger graduates of 
technological institutes of recognized excellence are found in the positions of assistant 
overseers or foremen; that in the office, too, they are at first employed in the sim- 
plest tasks has already been mentioned. Reasonably intelligent and efficient young 
men, thanks to thedesire of American firms to secure for the office above all things ener- 
getic and versatile people, can secure comparatively rapid promotion, and while at 
present many leading positions in the shipyards are in the hands of men who 
obtained their training abroad, the time may not be distant .vhen North America 
will be able to meet herself her demand for shipbuilders with thoro scientific training. « 

[From report of Director Beil.] 

The report of Director E. Beil on iron and steel ware is of an almost purely tech- 
nical nature, yet it contains some observations on American education and its influ- 
ence upon industrial development which are worthy of notice. 

American experts more practical titan German. — After repeated favorable comment 
on American tool manufacture and machine work, on the principle of American fac- 
tories to produce their wares "in only one and that the best quality" and on the 
"standard system," on the progressive energy and inventive genius of the American 
manufacturer and artizan, and on the practical spirit and "high technical intelli- 
gence" of all concerned in the work, he writes: 

The American technical expert is far more practical than is the case with us on an 
average. Scientific pondering he leaves to future generations. His scientific train- 
ing, therefore, measured by our standard, is inferior to ours. On the other hand, 
his technical knowledge and skill are based on a self-acquired fund of practical 
experience, and it is by reason of this that he accomplishes so much that is excellent 
in a field in which success may indeed be attained by a certain degree of scientific 
insight, but which demands first and last a many-sided and rich workshop experi- 
ence, an eye trained in observation, and a mind accustomed to inductive thinking. 

To this must be added that in America education and instruction influence prac- 
tical and productive work very favorably thru the circumstance that they develop, 
in much higher measure than is the case with us, skill of hand and eye, which is 
the first requirement in industrial work. In addition, American instruction deals 
with the actual more intensively than ours does, inasmuch as it installs the young 
in amply equipped workshops and physical laboratories for effective practical work 
and experiment. By this they not only keep awake, in all stages of development, 
the interest in practical doing and respect for it, but they encourage the independent 
acquisition of experience, and thereby of information which takes a firmer hold than 
the knowledge of others transmitted orally or in writing. This trains the faculty of 
observation, quickens the judgment in practical things, and accustoms them early to 
act in the pursuit of their calling on the basis of independent thought and conse- 
quently with conviction. & 

a Reiseberichte, p. 338. b Ibid., p. 324. 



APPRENTICESHIP AND TRADE SCHOOLS. -41 

[From report of Professor Gurtler.] 

The report of Professor Gurtler on the textile industry and that of Doctor Pukall 
on ceramics contain, respectively, paragraphs on special schools devoted to these 
subjects, but these are almost wholly descriptive and without comment, so that 
their consideration may be omitted here. Nevertheless, the following remarks of 
Doctor Pukall on the general and industrial character of the American people may 
prove interesting to many readers. He writes: 

Character of American people. — On the 20th of October we entered upon our home 
journey on a Hamburg- American steamer. The picture that I was able to gain in so 
short a time [some six or seven weeks] of American conditions was only a hasty 
one, but yet sufficient to dissipate within me completely the current views of America 
and the Americans. In place of the heartless and unfeeling band of men, eager for 
exploitation and running after the dollar, that was supposed to carry on its wretched 
business in that country, I had found an industrious, progressive, amiable, infinitely 
hospitable people, and— as far as I came in contact with them — of child-like harm- 
lessness. * * * At heart the American people are sound and above reproach. 
* * * The colossal extent of his [the American's] country and an imposing nature 
impart to all his enterprises a grandeur which does not exist with us in the same 
measure. The superabundance of natural and other resources invite exploitation, 
utilization, and study, and lead wholly of themselves to a magnificent industry. 
The American loves his country with every fiber of his being, and whoever praises 
it is at once received as a friend. It is true he is trained to this patriotism in the 
first place in the school, in a measure not found among us, but in a large part it has 
probably grown with him in his environment. And this love for his country is not 
the least factor that urges him to exert all his strength in order to make it great and 
beautiful, rich and powerful, excelling all the world. But it is also a sober-minded, 
healthy, and vigorous people that this soil brings forth, and which is formed from 
the blending of the numerous fragments of nations that stream together here, a people 
wholly fitted to undertake the above-mentioned gigantic task and to accomplish it 
at any cost. In this sense America is, indeed, the land of unlimited possibilities. It 
is true in many fields it is still behind Europe. About this there exists no doubt, 
but when we know with what energy the people work, with what zeal they study 
our publications, how they shrink from no expense in order to establish and main- 
tain schools upon schools, experimental institutions, and museums, we also know 
that it will not be long until they will take their place at our side, not only as equals, 
but, possibly, with superior power. 

German competition. — But what shall then become of Europe, what of our little 
Germany, that is not even of the size of Texas, when this as yet slumbering but 
already on the point of awakening giant arises? Yet we, too, are a youthful people. 
Our task will be tenaciously to hold fast the advantage that our older culture has 
given us over the Americans, and not to allow ourselves to be overtaken in the race; 
not to sleep upon our laurels, but to be vigilant. Not "How can I make it cheaper," 
but " How can I make it better," must be our motto, as it is that of the American. 
If our realm, in comparison with that of America, is too small and the resources of 
our soil exhausted, we must get what we lack elsewhere; the sea affords ways enough 
thereto. But we must also be strong enough that they be not one day closed to us. 
Our science and art, instead of lingering in the dreamy paths of ideals, must actively 
enter the field of public economy, the work of daily life, and bring forth things of 
value; then shall we achieve still greater and more lasting successes than those which, 
to the astonishment of all nations, our industries have just attained at St. Louis. 
Then, for a long time, there will be no need to fear America. A trip thru the harbor 
of Hamburg is exceedingly quieting to one who returns from America opprest by 
all sorts of doubts and fears. We are already in the fairest way of success; may we 
continue in it. " Our future lies on the sea." a 

APPRENTICESHIP AND TRADE SCHOOLS. 

[From report of Director Back.] 

The report of Director H. Back deals with the training of industrial workmen. 
After a number of introductory paragraphs concerning the general character of Ameri- 
can industries, in which he directs attention to the influence of machinery, the lack 
of efficient skilled workmen, the decay of former methods of apprenticeship, he 

a Reiseberichte, pp. 416-417. 



42 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

discusses the efforts of a number of the larger industrial establishments to supply 
the demand by new methods. 

Methods of training by industrial corporations. — Among these he describes succinctly 
the methods of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, the Allis-Chalmers Company, and a 
few others. He finds three classes of apprentices in the Baldwin works. The first 
of these includes young men with elementary school training, enrolled for four years, 
with a graduated wage of from 5 to 11 cents per hour and a final bonus of $125; they 
receive an allround practical training in machine construction by means of taking 
up in regular rotation the different kinds of shopwork; and, during the first three 
years, they attend at least twice a week a night school in which they are taught the 
elements of algebra and geometry and the rudiments of technical drawing. 

Of the apprentices of the second class advanced elementary or high school training 
is demanded; they are enrolled for three years with a graduated wage of 7 to 11 cents 
per hour and a final bonus of $100; during the first two years they attend a night 
school for technical drawing. 

The third class is composed of graduates of colleges, technical schools, or scientific 
institutions, at least 21 years of age, and enrolled for two years of practical work, 
with a graduated wage of from 13 to 20 cents per hour, but without final bonus. 

The results of this system he designates as satisfactory in every respect, and the 
same judgment applies apparently to similar systems in other large industrial works. 

On the other hand, he finds that in smaller industrial concerns in the larger cities 
apprentices receive practically no technical training after old methods, and that this 
is met only in the smaller towns and in the country. 

Attitude of the trades unions toward industrial training. — Further on, he directs 
attention to the inadequacy of legal provisions in a number of States, both in their 
requirements and in their enforcement, and to the attitude of trades unions. Among 
the latter he finds, on the one hand, a desire to exclude insufficiently trained work- 
men, and, on the other hand, a tendency to keep down the number of workers in the 
different trades as much as possible. Nevertheless, he holds that they are earnestly 
interested in the social, moral, and intellectual elevation of their members. With 
regard to the regulations of a number of unions he adds: "It must be recognized 
that these regulations, issued by the workmen, might contribute to the stimulation 
of apprenticeship if they were everywhere observed. It is by no means certain 
that the motive for the regulations of the trades unions is exclusively a pecuniary 
one— and I have gained the impression that it is not so; it is quite possible to con- 
nect them with the establishment of a more perfect training of apprentices." « As 
such desirable regulations, he quotes the clause requiring every workman to give 
professional instruction to the apprentices, and the one making it the duty of the 
foreman to see that the apprentice is trained in his calling to its full extent. 

On the other hand, "it can not be denied that thru the measures taken by the 
unions the hands of the business proprietor who depends on them are tied in the 
matter of the selection of apprentices; and that, similarly, he must feel as a limita- 
tion of his liberty the rule that differences between masters and apprentices must be 
submitted to the executive committee of the union." 

Mechanics' institutes. — In a subsequent section Director Back discusses institutions 
devoted to industrial training. He introduces this discussion with favorable men- 
tion of the Mechanics' Institutes of Cincinnati and Rochester, and adds in regard to 
the latter, but apparently as referring to both: 

The purpose of the institution is not to teach trades, but to train the pupils to work 
thoughtfully and to familiarize themselves with the "why" and "wherefore" of 
what they do. The methods of work employed in the workshops of the school have 
proved effective; they have promoted the development of the institution and of the 
industries, as well as the success ot the pupils. According to the statements of indus- 



a Reiseberichte, p. 81. 



APPRENTICESHIP AND TRADE SCHOOLS. 43 

trial leaders, the institute has increased the intelligence and efficiency of the working 
class in general, and promoted industrial, educational, and social development in the 
world of work. The graduates of the school are preferred to workmen trained exclu- 
sively in workshops by a master workman, because they are better prepared. They 
make more rapid progress and are more reliable than those who have had no tech- 
nical training. Many manufacturers receive young men as apprentices only on con- 
dition that they attend the evening department of the institute. a 

Reformatories. — With a few approving words, the "industrial schools" connected 
with State institutions of a reformatory character are then mentioned. The com- 
pleteness of the instruction and training and the efficiency of the boys are praised. 
"That the instruction in these institutions has educational value appeared from the 
evidences of order and good conduct on the part of the boys. With even limited 
interest on their part, they can leave the school with effective practical ability and 
with the information necessary for their success in work, and become useful members 
of society." 

Trade schools. — The comments of Director Back on trade schools are based on an 
inspection of the New York Trade School (established by Colonel Auchmuty), the 
Baron de Hirsch Trade School, the Philadelphia Trade School, the Evening Trade 
School of Boston, and the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades. 

The essential difference between shop instruction by a master workman [direct 
apprenticeship] and instruction in the workshops of a trade school is found in the 
fact that in the latter the execution of pieces of work is preceded by thoro explana- 
tions. These extend to tools, their handling, and the manner in which the work is 
to be done. The instruction is systematic, and the pupil will make progress in his 
calling and gain new information with every new piece of work intrusted to him, 
which, unfortunately, is not always — to-day even very rarely — the case in direct 
apprenticeship with a master workman. The pupil is kept busy exclusively with 
work connected with his trade, and is not interrupted by matters that are wholly 
foreign to it, as is frequently the case in direct apprenticeship. For this reason, the 
time required for learning a trade can be materially reduced in the trade school as 
compared with the time flxt for direct apprenticeship. & 

Manual training. — He concludes this feature of his report with a reference to the 
manual training schools connected with the system of public instruction and the 
attention given to hand work in every department of the public schools. This, he 
holds, will have " an influence, that can not be overestimated, upon the future 
development of industry and trades in the United States." 

Needs of Germany. — In applying the results of his observations to the needs of 
Germany, he writes: 

In order to enhance the achievements of German industry, the institutions for 
industrial instruction must, more than heretofore, make it their concern to promote 
industrial activity, not alone by theory and technical skill, but chiefly also in a 
practical direction. Auxiliary sciences and a few accomplishments aiding the man- 
ual activities of the industrial worker, such as drawing, painting, and modeling, are 
no longer sufficient. To teach in the schools their practical application appears to 
me, after my repeated observations in America, to be an urgent need. The Ameri- 
can, with his practical sense, soon recognized that education must aim not only at 
intellectual development but also, and prominently, at physical alertness at the 
training of hand and eye. Consequently, he has taken hold of and developed in 
noble fashion, in his technical and general system of education, the educational 
methods of the old world that seemed to him most suitable, such as slojd and work- 
shop instruction. In this, Germany must not remain behind if she wishes to become 
a successful competitor in the world market. 

Therefore the German workman must above all be afforded sufficient opportunity 
for work in the workshops of institutions for industrial instruction in order that 
he may become familiar, among other things, with methods for the production of 
technically difficult and artistically refined work, as well as sufficient practise in 
such production. Not only his knowledge, but also his ability to do, must be lifted 
to a higher level, considering the inadequate trade instruction in Germany. This 
requires an equipment which is lacking in many of the German institutions for trade 



a Reiseberichte, p. 83. 6 Ibid., p. 85. 



44 GEBMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

instruction, or at least is not of the character and extent met with in the more recent 
trade and technical schools of the United States. As to the workshops and labora- 
tories of these latter institutions, they are, in their equipment in machines, apparatus, 
and tools, as well as in regard to hygienic requirements, excellent and worthy of 
imitation. They offer to the workmen, who, during the day, are engaged in earning 
their living, frequently under quite unfavorable conditions, places of real recreation 
for their school work, where the very surroundings stimulate desire for and love of 
work.« 

[Report of Councilor v. Czihak.] 

Councilor von Czihak devotes a section of his report to trade schools. His presen- 
tation is almost exclusively descriptive of the organization of a number of typical 
institutions of this character, and contains no comments nor recommendations. 

[From report of Professor Gotte.] 

Trade instruction in America and Germany. — Professor Gotte in the comments of his 
report agrees essentially with Director Back respecting trade schools, but adds, with 
reference to their general organization: "Two things mast be specially emphasized 
concerning trade schools — in the first place, the excellent character of the workshop 
"or practical instruction; and, in the second place, that these schools in their essentials 
deal only with trades whose future is not threatened by factory work." & 

Further on he adds: 

Among Prussian institutions only the schools for special trades (Spezialfachschulen), 
the industrial art schools and schools for artizans (Handwerkerschulen), and the 
numerous recently organized courses for master workmen, can be compared with the 
trade schools. 

The schools for special trades, which afford, besides theoretical, extended practical 
shop instruction, are limited to the training of workmen for the hardware and cut- 
lery industry and for the bronze industry. On the other hand, the industrial art 
schools and the schools for artizans do not pay as much attention to shop instruction 
as is customary in the [American] trade schools, and the stress with them lies more 
on the art industrial than on the handicraft side of the training. The handicraft 
side of the training is therefore left with us more to the actual work in the various 
trades. That this kind of training, just as in the United States, is quite defective, 
can not be doubted; this is acknowledged, too, in that for many trades courses for 
master workmen have been organized. 

These courses for master workmen, however, can not pay sufficient attention to 
the younger members in the trade, and in this respect we may still learn from the 
[American] trade schools, c 

Evening trade schools. — With regard to evening courses for the training of workmen 
who can not attend instruction in the daytime, Professor Gotte writes, among other 
things, that such training is not so well developed by far as in Germany, but also 
that so far as it is organized it merits praise. 

It is a characteristic feature [he continues] that the courses do not contain sub- 
jects of instruction, such as the English language and arithmetic, that are treated in 
the elementary school, and that there is no class system that would compel a pupil 
to take up subjects of no interest to him. Besides courses in mathematics, natural 
science, mechanical drawing, electroteehnics, mechanism and mechanics (Maschinen- 
kunde), there are also courses in " machine inspection " and in "practical work." 
This may be deemed additional proof of the fact that the practical training in actual 
shops is not thought to be sufficiently varied. 

With us, in the evening and Sunday courses connected with the schools for ma- 
chine construction, we have not as yet" been able to rid ourselves wholly of the idea 
that in this, as well as in day instruction, a broad general culture is the indispen- 
sable foundation for the technical instruction. The class system has therefore been 
maintained thruout, which compels the pupil to pass thru the entire preparatory 
course before he can reach the technical instruction that interests him chiefly. 

The first semesters contain mostly only German, arithmetic, mathematics, physics, 
and geometrical drawing. All these are subjects of instruction whose practical value 

aReiseberichte, pp. 94-95. Mbid., p. 228. "Ibid., pp. 228-229. 



CONTENTS OF THE " REISEBERICHTE. " 45 

is not sufficiently evident to the pupil, and which therefore are tedious to him; be- 
fore he can reach technical instruction he is tired of the work. Moreover, it is the 
wish of a workman, and more particularly of an older workman, to acquire some 
skill in drawing, or to gain information thru an easy course of instruction con- 
cerning some definite department of machine construction, but to be spared German, 
arithmetic, and mathematics. This is not only comprehensible, but to a certain ex- 
tent justified, the more so as at present everyone can find opportunity, even outside 
of the school, to perfect himself in the mother tongue and in arithmetic. 

These considerations indicate that our recently planned reorganization of technical 
night courses in conformity with the American system is calculated to be of benefit. « 

CONCLUSION. 

The Reiseberichte close with the report of Councilor Oppermann, as appendix. It 
contains general accounts of the journey to America, the character of American cities 
and of American scenery, American railroad management, American economic con- 
ditions with special reference to agriculture and the industries, the conditions of 
labor, the general character of the St. Louis Exposition, and the return to Germany. 
Aside from its general literary and scientific value it contains, however, nothing 
additional bearing on the interests with which this synopsis is concerned. 



CONTENTS OF THE " REISEBERICHTE. 



GENERAL. 



A. REPORT OF DOCTOR DUNKER, COUNCILOR OF INDUSTRY, BERLIN. 

American secondary schools in their relation to commerce and industry: Page. 

1. The American common school system 7 

2. The American high schools 10 

3. Manual training in high schools 16 

4. Commercial schools 23 

5. General remarks concerning American education 35 

B. REPORT OF DOCTOR KUYPERS, CITY SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT, DUSSELDORF. 

Elementary schools and the training of teachers: 

1. Introductory remarks 44 

2. Kindergartens 46 

3. Elementary schools 47 

(a) Historical review 47 

(6) Organization 48 

(c) Methods and aims 50 

(d) Teachers and pupils 51 

(e) Branches of study 54 

4. Training of teachers 56 

5. Critical estimate and conclusion 61 

C. REPORT OF H. BACK, DIRECTOR OF INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, FRANKFORT ON THE MAIN. 

Training of industrial workers: 

1. Introductory remarks 65 

2. Industrial production by wholesale, special machines, and division of labor 67 

3. Views concerning the want of skilled artizans 73 

4. What is done by captains of industry to prepare well-trained laborers? 74 

5. Some legal provisions of States concerning apprentices 77 

6. Position of organized labor with reference to industrial education 79 

7. Other agencies for the promotion of apprentice education 81 

8. The social position of the American artizan 89 

9. Concluding remarks 94 

a Reiseberichte, pp. 229-230. 



46 GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 

II. INSTRUCTION IN INDUSTRIAL ART AND DRAWING. 
A. REPORT OF DR. ING. MUTHESIUS, COUNCILOR OF INDUSTRY, BERLIN. 

Page. 

1. Industrial art at the World's Fair at St. Louis 99 

(a) Industrial art outside of Germany 99 

(6) German industrial art Ill 

2. The success of Germany at the World's Fair in St. Louis 128 

3. The present condition of American industrial art 130 

4. Instruction in art and technical instruction in America 134 

B. REPORT OF E. THORMALEN, DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL ART AND OF TRADE 
SCHOOL, MAGDEBURG. 

1. Industrial art at the World's Fair, St. Louis 144 

2. Education in industrial art in the United States 151 

C REPORT OF PROF. C SCHICK, DIRECTOR OF TECHNICAL SCHOOL, CASSEL. 

1. The school system of the United States 156 

2. Drawing in American schools, tendencies 163 

3. Manual training in American schools 165 

4. Possibilities of utilizing American educational ideas 171 

5. Various kinds of shopwork 177 

D. REPORT OF VON CZIHAK, INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL COUNCILOR, BERLIN (FORMERLY OF 
DUSSELDORF). 

1. Introductory remarks 180 

2. Common schools in the United States 185 

8. Manual training 188 

4. Drawing as a study 1 93 

5. Technical instruction 198 

6. Instruction in art 200 

7. Instruction in architecture 204 

8. Trade schools 207 

9. American industrial art 212 

10. Concluding remarks 214 

III. MACHINE CONSTRUCTION AND THE METAL INDUSTRY. 
A. REPORT OF PROFESSOR GOTTE, COUNCILOR OF INDUSTRY, BERLIN. 

Schools for the training of officials and artizans of the metal industry compared with similar 
institutions of Prussia: 

1. Origin of such institutions 217 

2. Kinds of school 218 

3. Course of study— 

(a) In technological schools 222 

(b) In trade schools 227 

(c) In evening schools 229 

4. Buildings and equipment 230 

5. Teachers 231 

6. Supporters and authorities of these schools 233 

7. Cost of such education 234 

8. Concluding remarks 235 

9. Appendixes: (a) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (b) Worcester Polytechnic 

Institute, (c) Stevens Institute of Technology, (d ) School of Engineering of Columbia 
University, (e) Sibley College, (/) College of Engineering of the University of Illinois, 
(g) Technological Department of Drexel Institute, (h) Technical Department of Pratt 
Institute, (i) New York Trade School. The organization and course of study of each 

of these 9 institutions are given 236 

B. REPORT OF BECKERT, ROYAL INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL COUNCILOR, SCHLESWIG. 

i. Organization of the American school system 286 

2. Engineering schools of universities and colleges 288 

3. Trade schools 292 

4. Manual training schools .' 293 



CONTENTS OF THE " KEISEBEEICHTE. " 47 

C. REPORT OF E. BEIL, DIRECTOR OF THE HARDWARE AND CUTLERY SCHOOL, 
SCHMALKALDEN. 

Page. 

1. Introductory remarks : 296 

2. Tools and machine tools at the World's Fair, St. Louis 298 

3. Observations in American workshops and tool industries 300 

4. The American manner of production and means employed 394 

5. The success of the American tool industry and its causes 321 

6. Concluding remarks 325 

7. Appendixes: 15 full quarto photogravures of American machine tools and hardware 327 

IV. SHIPBUILDING. 

REPORT OF SELLENTIN, DIRECTOR OF THE SCHOOL OF SHIPBUILDING AND MACHINE 
CONSTRUCTION, KIEL. 

1. Introductory remarks 329 

2. Technological instruction, with especial reference to shipbuilding schools 330 

3. American methods of using shipbuilding materials, and their influence upon cost of building. 338 

4. Concluding remarks 344 

5. Appendixes: Courses of study of the Manual Training School of Washington University (St. 

Louis), the Spring Garden Institute (Philadelphia), the Armour Institute of Technology 
(Chicago), and the evening courses in shipbuilding of the Franklin Institute (Philadel- 
phia). Methods of technical drawing. Time allotment of the different subjects of 
instruction in the departments of machine construction in certain higher technological 
institutions, compared with that found in similar Prussian institutions. The Hampton 
Normal and Agricultural Institute 345 

V. THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY. 
REPORT OF PROFESSOR GURTLER, COUNCILOR OF INDUSTRY, BERLIN. 

1. The textile industry at the World's Fair at St. Louis 363 

2. Textile schools in North America s 368 

3. Visits to textile factories 372 

VI. CERAMICS. 

REPORT OF DOCTOR PUKALL, DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL CERAMIC SCHOOL, BUNZLAU. 

1. Ceramics and glass at the World's Fair at St. Louis, including the exhibits of all the leading 

nations 381 

2. Visits to American ceramic factories 400 

3. American ceramic schools 409 

VII. APPENDIX. 
REPORT OF WM. OPPERMANN, COUNCILOR OF INDUSTRY, ARNSBERG. 

1. Introductory remarks 419 

2. The voyage 420 

3. New York and other large American cities 423 

4. North American landscape scenery 427 

5. The railroads 429 

6. American economical life, especially agriculture and industry 437 

7. Visit to American industrial centers 449 

8. Protection to laborers and industrial supervision in the United States 460 

9. The World's Fair at St. Louis 469 

10. Departure and retrospect 476 



INDEX, 



A. 

Aachen, Germany, technical college, 36. 

Academies of art, schools for illustrators, 31. 

Accuracy neglected in drawing, 28. 

Act, Morrill, of 1862, 35. 

Admission, requirements of, to engineering schools, 38. 

Aim of American kindergarten, 17; of school, to stimulate, show the way, 14. 

Alis-Chalmers Company, 42. 

Alley, blind, American school is not, 10. 

America, a slumbering giant as yet, 41; discusses educational problems, 11; gives an example to the 

world, 34; has boards of education and a bureau of education , 10; has opened new paths in industrial 

art, 30; lacks an artistic past, 32; lacks European point of view, 27; opened new paths in teaching 

drawing, 34; is the land of contrasts, 26; scarcely discovered when Luther demanded compulsory 

education, 16. 
American educational system imprest by German suggestions, 22. 
American people, character of, 41; permeated with technical spirit, 31; sober-minded, healthy and 

vigorous, 41; sound at heart, 41. 
Americans, energetic, resourceful and superficial, 12; energetically at work to advance, 23; love their 

country, 41; want a modern school, 14. 
Amos Tuck School of Dartmouth College, 22. 
Armour Institute, Chicago, 32. 

Art instruction, develops rapidly, 25, 34; the human figure in, 27. 
Art schools, after the European model, 29; lack teachers of high standing, 29; prepare drawing teachers, 

29; typical ones, 29. 
Art students, majority are women, 29. 

Association, innocent, promoted by coeducation, 23; National Teachers', 9. 
Attitude, American, toward other nations, 12; of trade unions toward industrial education, 42; which 

honors labor, 21. 

B. 
Back, Director H., 41, 44. 
Baldwin Locomotive Works, 42. 
Baron de Hirsch Trade School, 43. 
Beckert, Councilor, 38. 

Beil, Director E., 40. . - 

Belief, naive, in superiority of American institutions, 12; religious, of pupils not inquired into, 10. 
Boys, clever, turned into cheap clerks, 22; should be educated by men, 14; working at the lathe, had 

been listening to Cicero, 21. 
Brown, Elmer Ellsworth, Commissioner of Education, 5. 
Buildings of normal schools of noble style, 24. 
Bureau of Education, origin, 9; its publications, 15; a characteristic feature of the United States, 10. 

C. 

Character, corporate, of Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, 10; fundamental Anglo-Saxon, 10; general, oi 
technical schools, 35; national, of American schools, 10; of American people, 41; of drawings made 
in technical colleges, 36; of high school, a double one, 19; of instruction in engineering schools, 38. 

Characteristics, of the nation exemplified in school, 16; of normal schools, 24; of trade schools, 44. 

Chemistry, strong emphasis on, 36; too much time allotted, 36. 

Class instruction contrasted with individual instruction, 23. 

Class rooms, laterally lighted, in art schools, 32. 

Coeducation, a democratic measure, 23; has tendency to elevate both sexes, 14; in American schools, 14; 
opinion of Dr. Dunker, 23; should cease at the age of 12, 14. 

Collections of musical instruments and other appliances, 32. 

Colleges, modified their courses, 19; normal, giving degrees, 25; of commerce, 22; technical, in America, 
35. 

49 



50 INDEX. 

Combination of text-book and oral methods, 23. 

Commission, the Mosely, 5; the Royal Prussian, 5. 

Commissioners, their impression given baldly, 8. 

Commonwealth, not only right but duty to provide for education, 10. 

Community of interests between sexes, 23. 

Comparison between American and German technical schools, 35. 

Composition, knowledge of the laws of, 28; of landscapes in drawing, 29. • 

Condition, economic and political, of a country, 7; of industrial'art in America, 30. 

Connection, between school and art collections, 32; organic, of kindergarten and school, 15. 

Contrasts, America, the land of, 26; between Prussian and American technical colleges, 36; with Euro- 
pean ideas in school drawing, 27. 

Corporations, industrial, methods of training by, 42. 

Country and school, both in transitional state, 16. 

Course of study, of elementary schools, 17; of high schools, 19; of normal schools, 24; of technical col- 
leges in Prussia superior, 37. 

Courses, commercial, in high schools, 22; finishing, in schools, 14; for master workmen, 44; for special 
teachers, 25; in colleges, modified, 19; motley in high schools, 19; of technical colleges; 36; of unpre- 
cedented complexity in high schools, 19; post-graduate, in normal schools, 25. 

Criticism, of American industrial education, 33; of the American schools, 16. 

Critics, expert, of the American schools, 11; of America, heard, 7. 

Cultivation of taste, chief object of drawing, 27,34. 

Culture, artistic, considered very important, 35; general, offered in institutions, 10; school system is 
part of it, 7. 

Czihak, Councilor von, 16, 26, 44. 



Danger, of losing oneself in details, 28; of party politics to the schools, 15. 

Dealing with material things gives knowledge of nature, 21. 

Decoration, in drawing, neglected in America, 35; inner, of schools in America, 32. 

Defects, of the American schools, 15; transitional, 16; of technical colleges, not much felt, 40. 

Degrees of B. A. and M. A. given by normal colleges, 25. 

Demand, for shipbuilders, will be met soon, 40; for trained engineers, 36. 

Designing in art instruction, 27; construction neglected, 36. 

Desire for progress the best school can give, 21; of teachers, to retain pupils in school, 22; to increase 
college attendance, 22. 

Development, extraordinary, of industry, 36; historic, of our schools, 9; industrial, in America, 9; of 
kindergarten in America, 15; of taste in drawing, 26; political, of the nineteenth century, 9; pro- 
digious, of trade, 9. 

Difference, between German and American schools, 10; between Prussian and American technical col- 
leges, 36; between Prussian lower and higher technical colleges strictly observed, 37; between shop 
instruction and that in trade schools, 43; local, between educational institutions, 10. 

Dilletanteism (Laienhaftigkeit) in America, 11. 

Discussions in America are on educational problems, 11; in Germany on organization and methods, 11, 

Distinction of American manual-training schools, 20. 

Dow, Arthur, 28. 

Drawing, accurate, of simple and complex objects, 27; ambidextrous, Tadd's advocacy, 28; from copy, 
not found, 18; from nature, found in schools, 27; from nature, Tadd's idea, 28; in American schools, 
18; in America, rests upon study of child nature, 34; in common schools, 33; in high schools, 27; in 
school, begins at the bottom, 34; in technical colleges, 36; in technical schools, criticized, 39; instruc- 
tion a kind of play, 29; instruction has distinctly American ideas, 27; instruction in elementary 
schools, 25; of solids and ornaments, 34. 

Drawing and lectures in technical colleges too independent, 36. 

Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, 22, 31, 38. 

Dunker, Doctor, 9, 19, 22. 



Education, American, differently judged, 7; artistic, of the people, 34; commonwealth's duty as well as 

right, 10; compulsory, not universal, 15; general, with reference to industrial development, 8; 

industrial, attitude of trade unions, 42; not a finished one aimed at, 15; of hand and eye, 13, 15, 34; 

of the whole boy, 20; pedagogic, climax found in teachers' colleges, 25; special, for professional men, 

10; national, task of, 21. 
Emphasis, upon experiment compensates for lack of theory, 38; upon mechanical work excessive, 36. 
Energy of Americans extraordinary, 33. 
Engineers, mechanical, can not derive benefit from chemical analysis, 36; scientifically trained, needed, 



INDEX. 51 

Equipment, mental, for scientific progress, 38; of industrial art schools, 32; of kindergartens, 17; of 
laboratories, 21; of lavatories in American schools, 11; of normal schools, 24; of technical colleges, 
praiseworthy, 39; of workshops, 18. 

Evening Trade School of Boston, 43; similar schools discust, 44. 

Expert, American technical, more practical than German, 40. 

Exposition at St. Louis, department of education, 7. 

Expression, graphic and written, 22; of childish thought, 13. 

Extension, of school age to 15, 14; rapid, of high schoool svstem, 19. 



Feeling of being occupied with the present, 17; painful, not to see German boys do so, 21. 
Freedom in drawing curbed by shopwork, 34; of motion in America, 12. 
Froebel's principles not limited to kindergarten, 17. 
Froelich, Hugo, 29. 



Geography, considers practical relations, 17; its commercial treatment, 22. 
German and American schools, differences, 10. 
German schools neglect educational principles, 11. 

Germany, American students disciples of, 12; has ministers of instruction, not of education, 10; not 
even the size of Texas, 41; rich in art collections, 32; what it needs to enhance its achievements, 43. 
Germs, a thousand, await future development, 34. 
Gotte, Professor, 35, 44. 

Government, Federal, not burdened with the care for schools, 9. 
Grades of schools interlocked in America, 16. 
Growth of cities hinders healthy progress of school system, 16. 
Giirtler, Professor, 41. 



Hailmann, Dr. W. N., 1, 5. 

Harris, Dr. William T., 9. 

Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, their corporate character, 10. 

Herrick, Cheesman A., 22. 

High schools, commercial, 22; instruction in art, 27; their relation to commerce and industry, 19. 

Horace Mann, 24. 

Horace Mann School, 18. 

Huxley quoted in America, 10. 



Ideal, American educational, 11; American, in machine work, 30; German educational, 11. 

Ideas, leading, in teaching drawing, 26; foreign educational, 16; of organization, to be imitated, 8. 

Impression, general, of technical colleges, 40; pathetic, to see a male student in a normal school, 24. 

Impressions, color, of greater importance than of outline, 26; of German specialists, 7. 

Inclinations of the child the criterion of the teacher, 14. 

Individuality, its development, 18. 

Industrial art, American exhibit not complete at St. Louis, 30; America has opened new paths, 30. 

Industrial art schools in America, 30; the American, not developed as yet, 33; insist upon proportion 
of line and surface, 28; multiplicity of subjects, 31. 

Industrial education, attitude of trade unions, 42. 

Industrial instruction of Germans superior, 32; prospect of, 33; rapidly developed in America, 34. 

Influence, determinative, of Morrill Act, 35; of America upon European industrial art, 30; of American 
kindergarten, 17; of English industrial art small, 30; of German not precluded, 30; of Frobel in 
America, 17; of German ideas, 22; of machinery upon character of industry, 41; of N. E. A., far- 
reaching, 9; of the Bureau of Education, 9; of women on boys not inferior, 14. 

Ingenuity of American furniture manufacturers, 30. 

Institutes, mechanics', devoted to industrial training, 42; teachers', 25. 

Institutions, American, admirers of, 7; secondary, coeducation in, 23. 

Instruction, commercial, in America, 22; German industrial, 7; gratuitous, 15; in drawing and art, 25; 
has serious defects, 28; in elementary schools, 17; in engineering schools, character of, 38; in indus- 
trial art, character, 31 ; in the mother tongue, 39; is a stimulating exchange of views, 14; religious, in 
public schools, 10. 

Interests, educational, not assigned to Federal Government, 9; literary, pupils not drawn by, 21. 

Interference on part of school board with inner management, 15. 



INDEX. 



Judgments, differing on American education, 7; snap, wrong, 13. 

K. 

Kindergarten, the American, 17; a large nursery, 17; a public school, 10. 
Kindergartens, public, charity, and church, 17; their equipment, 17. 
Kuypers, Doctor F., 12, 17. 

L. 

Laboratory, in American schools, 21; lor machine construction, exercises in, 36; mechanical, in tech- 
nical schools, 36; physical, exercises in, 36; practise, in technical colleges, 39. 

Lack, of ornamentation, 35; of schools for special branches of industrial art in America, 35; of teachers 
in art schools, 32; of teachers of high standing in art schools, 29; of trained teachers in America, 24. 

Ladder, educational, reaching from the gutter to the university, 10. 

Landscape, drawing, in American schools, 18; painting, almost wholly absent, 29 

Latin, in high schools, 19; in St. Louis Exposition, 20. 

Law in Massachusetts makes manual training obligatory, 20. 

Learning by doing, 20; a principle of Frobel, 16. 

Library, use of, taught, 14; public, and newspapers, 14. 

Life work in art schools in no way pedantic, 33 

Luther demanded compulsory education, 16. 

M. 

Machine construction, standardizing in, 36; too much specialized, 37. 

Machine work, character of American, 30; must become artistic, 30. 

Machines, their manipulation demands keen observation, 21. 

Manual training, a method, 13; in American schools, 18; in America begins where it ends in Germany, 
20; in high schools, 20; its influence can not be overestimated, 43; obligatory, 18; the highest form of 
self-activity, 18. 

Manual training high schools, 18; are not trade schools, 20. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 11, 38. 

Massachusetts mother of American normal schools, 24. 

Master artisans giving instruction, 21. 

Masterpieces of English and French art in school collections, 32. 

Matter of instruction in technical schools, its treatment, 36. 

Mechanics' Institute, at Cincinnati and Rochester, 42. 

Mechanics' institutes, devoted to industrial training, 42. 

Median lines in mechanical drawing lacking, 39. 

Method, a kind of doing, 13; desultory, of piano lessons, 28; difference in, in Germany and America, 30; 
in drawing, does not go deep enough, 26; in drawing too recently introduced, 26; of American kinder- 
garten, 17. 

Method of instruction, American, different from German technological schools, 40; current in Ger- 
many, 38; in engineering schools, 38. 

Methods, antiquated, in drawing in technical schools, 39; former, of apprenticeship, 41; of training by 
corporations, 42; of work, worthy of imitation, 39. 

Metropolitan Museum, New York, 32. 

Microscope .rarely found in school in Germany, 22; used in botany, 21. 

Models, geometrical, for free-hand drawing, 27. 

Modern spirit pervading European art industrial schools, 33. 

Muthesius, Doctor, 25, 30. 

N. 

Nature study, deals with matters of practical life, 18; in form of drawing of plants, 33. 

Need, for technical schools of lower rank, 36; urgent, to teach practical application, 43. 

Needs, local, American school responds to, 9; of Germany to enhance its industry, 43. 

New York High School of Commerce, 22. 

New York Trade School, 43. 

New York University, 22. 

Night school for technical drawing for apprentices, 42. 

Normal schools, admission of high school graduates, 15; almost always have a kindergarten depart- 
ment, 25; attendance too large for thoro work, 24; buildings and equipment, 24; their teachers well 
prepared, 25; used for general culture, 24. 

O. 

Object, chief, of manual training is mental development, 21. 
Obligatory subjects in high schools, 19. 
Observations, expert, of American institutions, 5. 



INDEX. 53 

Oppermana, Councilor, 45. 

Opportunity, for work for young people, 43; offered in normal schools, 25; to see ourselves as others 
see us, 8. 

Organization, of Prussian technical colleges, 37; of schools in America, 13; of technical schools, 35; pres- 
ent, of high schools, 19. 

Ornament, historic, used as models, 35; may be questionable, 35; use of, in drawing, 34. 

P. 

Painting, decorative, neglected in America, 35. 

Parliament, Prussian, House of Deputies, 5, 7. 

Pestalozzi, Frobel, Herbart, and Wundt may claim share in progress, 12. 

Philadelphia Trade School, 43. 

Positions, higher, in factory and office, 36; lower, trained men not required for, 36. 

Possibility, far-reaching, of school organization, 15. 

Practicability of Dow's ideas doubted, 28. 

Practises of Rubens and Lenbach, 35. 

Prang's series of text-books for drawing, 26. 

Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 31, 38. 

Preparation, for life or for college, 19; of teachers, inadequate, 15. 

Prevalence of the fair sex in art school not profitable, 32. 

Pride, American, does not rest on hatred but on pity, 12; in schools in America, 11. 

Principles, fundamental, in school drawing, 27; of American drawing instruction are excellent, 28. 

Privacy of occupants of dormitories, 24. 

Private schools in cultured sections of the country, 10. 

Problem, of adapting the school system to city's growth, 16; of promoting capable pupils, 23. 

Problems, social, attention given to, at Amos Tuck School, 22. 

Productive doing is scarcely ever reached, 37. 

Progress of American school surprising, 16; of culture, stages of, 18; of humanity illustrated in draw- 
ing, 18. 

Progressiveness of the American school, 15. 

Prospective view of American industrial instruction, 33. 

Psychology, favorite study of American teachers, 25. 

Public schools in America appreciated, 16; their organization, 10. 

Publications of the Bureau of Education, 0, 15. 

Punishment, corporal, banished, 11. 

Pupil is kept busy in the trade school, 43; may excel hin teachers, 12; regard for his personality, 13; 
talented, has much leisure, 23. 

Pupils, indolent and weak, sought other courses, 22; mentally deficient, 21; of lesa talent for abstract 
studies, 15; small number in a class, 15; the school fails to reach, 21; without creative ardor, 21. 

Pursuits, industrial and professional, 13; industrial, preparation for, 15. 

R. 

Reading, connected, in American school, 14. 

Record books models of excellence in- laboratories, 39. 

Reduction of forms to utmost simplicity, 35. 

Reformatories or industrial schools, 43. 

Regulations issued by the workmen, 42 

Representation of objects of nature in drawing, 34. 

Requirement, for admission to engineering schools, 38; of high school training for normal students, 15- 

Requirements receiving little consideration in technical schools, 37. 

Responsibility, teacher's, for work of student, 38. 

Restaurants or lunch rooms in schools, 32. 

Results, demonstrable, unsatisfactory, 13; finished cultural, found rarely, 34; in drawing, trifling, 26; 
in higher grades, inferior, 28; of observations in America applied to Germany, 43; small, of draw- 
ing in technical colleges, 36. 

Reverence, due to fidelity and zeal of women as teachers, 32 

Ross, Denman, 29. 

Rudiments of technical drawing taught to apprentices, 42 



Salary, of kindergartners, 17; of teachers too low, 15. 

Schick, Professor, 25, 31, 34. 

School, an essential factor of the development of the State, 16; bears upon actual life, 14; open to all 
alike, 14; permeated by kindergarten method, 13; should be a monarchy, 15; the American, carries 
too many subjects, 16; responds to local needs, 9; thoroly in earnest, 16; youth of, 16; too many 
women in, 15. 



54 INDEX. 

School system, an organic whole, 16; part of a country's culture, 7. 

School training not provided for subordinate workers, 36. 

School workshop, entirely lacking in Prussia, 37; imitation of Russia and France, 37. 

School of Engineering, Columbia University, 38. 

Schools, American, are not blind alleys, 10; for bookbinders, 33; for special trades, 44; German and 
American differences, 10; in Massachusetts and Arizona, display qualitative differences, 10; lava- 
tories in, 11; maintained by churches, 10; pride in, in America, 11; public, their organization in 
America, 10, 13. 

Science and art, must not linger in ideals, 41. 

Sciences, academic, and pedagogy touch, 15; auxiliary and a little skill are no longer sufficient in the 
competition, 43. 

Scientific pondering left to future generations, 40. 

Sellentin, Director, 39. 

Shopwork, bears on all-sided development, 35; inculcates a sense of truth, 21; in industrial schools, 35; 
practical, a palliative for freedom in drawing, 34. 

Sibley College 38. 

Skill in drawing to be developed, 26; of hand and eye, 40. 

Snow, Bonnie E., 29. 

Special schools for work in metals, pottery, forging, 33. 

Spirit, of American drawing instruction is excellent, 28; of enterprise in America, 14; of the young, is 
inventive, 12; of unity, in home and school, 15; technological, pervading Germany, 33. 

State governments appreciate normal training, 24. 

State institutions of a reformatory character, 43. 

Stevens Institute of Technology, 38. 

Struggle, between Germany, England, and America, 23; between scholastics and humanists, 16. 

Students trained to inquire into the why and wherefore, 42. 

Subjects, economic, judicial, and social, treated at Amos Tuck school, 22; in high schools, obligatory 
and optional, 19; taught in evening trade schools, 44; taught in technical colleges that should be 
in preparatory institutions, 36; too many in industrial art schools, 31. 

Success, of school, lies in advance over former conditions, 13; on basis of merit, 8. 

Suggestions, German, their application, 22; prolific, for Europeans in American schools, 33. 

Supervision, of drawing instruction, 27; excellently organized, 28. 

Supervisors trained in normal schools, 25. 

System, of education, American, differs completely from German, 31; of public education, truly 
named, 10; of public instruction, manual training part of, 43. 

T. 

Tadd, J. Liberty, 28. 

Taste, artistic, cultivation of, 21; in choice of color in woman's dress, 30; in normal school architec- 
ture, 24. 

Teacher is feminine gender in America, 11. 

Teachers, few have normal training, 24; inadequately prepared, 15; low social position of, 15; of art 
schools deficient, 32; of normal schools well prepared, 25; prepared in colleges, 15; pursuing cul- 
tural studies, 15; their salary too low, 15; too many women, 15. 

Teachers' Association, National, 9. 

Technical colleges, in America, 35; having workshops, 39. 

Technical schools, claim collegiate rank, 36; do not supply demand for trained engineers, 36; German, 
for special branches, 35; in universities, 15. 

Tendency, to apply art appreciation, 27; to make little knowledge go a great way, 11; to specialize and 
standardize, 36; universal in America, toward utility, 31. 

Text-books, free, 15; have a peculiar place in American schools, 23; use of, in technical schools, 38. 

Thormiilen, Director, 25. 

Trade instruction, in Germany inadequate, 43; quite defective, 44. 

Trade schools, discussion of, 43; evening, 44; explain operations, 43; not manual training schools, 20. 

Trade unions, attitude of, toward industrial education, 42. 

Training, scientific, inferior in America, 40; for citizenship, 14; in school workshop preferable to unpaid 
learners in factories, 37; manual, a method, 14. 

Transformation, complete, of the entire school organization, 35. 

Treatment, commercial, of geography, 22; of designing, insufficient, 36; of drawing, uniformity in, 26; 
of pupils' work, 11; of the matter of instruction in technical schools, 36. 

Trip thru harbor of Hamburg quiets doubts, 41. 

U. 

Universities, American, not definitely organized when Morrill act past, 36; technical schools in, 15; 
German, departments of, 35. 



55 



consul, 22. 
Urbana College of Engineering, 38. 
Use of the library in America, 14. 

V. 

Value, educational, of manual training, 20; of practical experience, 36; of shop work for physical devel- 
opment, 20; for ethical education, 20; of text-books, 23. 
Victory, an easy, over Spain, 9; lies on the side of men of wide outlook, 23. 
Visits to American schools to gather correct information, 13. 
Volksschule of Germany, course of study, 17. 

W. 

Water-color work without previous pencil drawing, 27. 

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, 22. 

Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades, 43. 

Woman's dress, American, praise for, 30; American, the effect of personal taste, 30; Parisian, deter- 
mined by fashion, 30. 

Women, American, as pupils and as teachers of art, 31; German, only students, not teachers of art, 31; 
in kindergarten, superior, 15; their excessive employment as teachers, 15. 

Woodward, Prof. C. M., 20. 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 38. 

Work, constructive, in school, 18; defective, considered artistic, 34; muscular and mental, mingled, 21; 
of American technical schools, 35. 

Workshops, connected with technical colleges, 39; in technical colleges, 36; seem interlopers in ceramic 
schools, 33; their equipment, 18. 

Y. 

Yearning for higher things created in the pupil, 21. 

Young men from technical colleges easily find employment, 40. 



Lb Mr '09 



